After
Hild Found
Guilty Juror
Tells Inner
City Press Of
Devil's
Advocates and
Crocodile
Tears
By Matthew
Russell Lee, Patreon,
Podcast
Vlog
SDNY EXCLUSIVE,
Jan 21 – Michael
Hild was
arraigned for
fraud on Live
Well
Financial's
reverse
mortgages and
home equity
conversion
mortgages by
U.S. District
Court for the
Southern
District of
New York Judge
Ronnie Abrams
on September
5, 2019. Inner
City Press
covered it, here.
Now,
after the
guilty
verdict, one
of the Hild
jurors
requesting
anonymity has
told Inner
City Press:
"The 3 week
trial was
definitely an
interesting
and wild one
that's for
sure but I'm
happy that
it's finally
coming to a
close after a
year and eight
months since
our verdict.
The background
for me was
easy from
having
experiences
with reverse
mortgages in
the past so
everything
that was
described in
court was
straight
forward. I
thought Hild's
attorney did a
fine job in
representing
him, I think
the evidence
against Hild
was just too
high of a
mountain to
climb and get
out.
"The
most damaging
part of the
case was
obviously the
testimony from
Stumberger and
Rohr. Knowing
that they were
cooperating
with the
government. I
had my doubts
on what they
were saying at
first and
tried to have
an open mind.
But once the
recordings
were played I
think everyone
in that
courtroom all
knew what they
were doing was
wrong. I think
the quote from
Hild on the
recording was
something
along the
lines of the
Scenario... I
forgot the
number... was
a self
generating
money machine.
Between all of
the
recordings,
the
visualizations
of the HECM IO
bonds being
grossly
inflated and
increased
perfectly
which is
something that
would never
happen.
I
think once
they realized
that IDC was
publishing
their pricing
exactly, it
opened up all
of those
opportunities.
I think Hild
testifying
really didn't
do that much
for me. When
he first got
on the stand I
wanted to
believe him
and was
keeping an
open mind with
all of the
evidence
presented
before hand.
But I think
once he got on
the stand I
think he
realized what
he did was
wrong and once
he started
crying on the
stand it
reminded me of
crocodile
tears.
The
final nail in
the coffin was
when Rohr
resigned and
the new exec.
didn't want to
sign the
statements as
they
understood the
walls were
caving in to
the whole plan
and didn't
want to be a
part of it for
how much they
inflated the
portfolio.
Once we went
into
deliberations
that morning,
I think we all
looked at each
other and
within 30
minutes we all
knew that we
were all on
the same page
with a guilty
verdict on all
the counts and
there really
was no doubt
for how well
the government
proved their
case.
That's
the reason why
it only took
us less than
half of the
day to
deliberate,
the evidence
against Hild
was far too
strong for
anyone to get
him out of
that hole. We
went count by
count taking
the evidence
that was
provided and
seeing what
would place a
guilty verdict
for each and
it was clear.
One
or two of us
tried to play
devil's
advocate and
tried to raise
any sort of
doubt in the
government's
evidence but
if any doubt
was made at
one thing
there was a
mountain of
five or six
other things
to back it
up.
Other than
that, I'm
curious to see
what the
court's
sentence is
going to be
next Friday
and love
following you
and your other
cases you
report on."
***
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