Latest news with #MarilynMosby
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Appeals court overturns Mosby's mortgage fraud conviction, upholds perjury charges
Former Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby walks out of the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt with her daughers after Mosby's sentencing in May 2024. (Photo by Bryan Sears/Maryland Matters) A federal appeals court gave former Baltimore City State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby a partial win Friday, overturning her 2024 conviction for mortgage fraud but upholding perjury convictions in connection with the purchase of two Florida homes. A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also reversed a lower court's order that Mosby forfeit a Florida condo as a result of the mortgage fraud conviction, noting that with the conviction now overturned, the forfeiture was improper. Neither Mosby's attorneys nor prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland immediately responded to requests for comment on the case Friday. Friday's ruling is the latest turn in the legal trials of Mosby, who served two terms as Baltimore's top prosecutor, from 2105-2023. She was indicted in 2022 by a federal grand jury on two counts of perjury, for falsely claiming a COVID-19 hardship on an application to withdraw $90,000 from her retirement account, and two counts of mortgage fraud, on charges she made false statements on mortgage applications for the two vacation homes in Florida that she bought in 2021. Her trials on the charges were held separately. At her perjury trial, Mosby argued that questions on the form that was the basis of her perjury conviction were 'fundamentally ambiguous.' The form asked if she had suffrered 'adverse financial consequences' during the COVID-19 pandemic that justified allowing her to withdraw retirement funds early without penalty; she said she feared the pandemic could affect Mahogany Elite, a travel firm she had founded. Former prosecutor Mosby gets probation for perjury, false claims convictions But prosecutors argued that Mahogany Elite could not have suffered financial consequences because it was brand new — she had 'not yet started the company, earned any revenue, or incurred any costs.' Jurors apparently agreed, convicting her on Nov. 9, 2023, of both perjury counts. At her mortgage fraud trial, Mosby argued that prosecutors never established that she was in Maryland when the alleged crimes occurred, but an overbroad jury instruction allowed them to determine she was, even in the absence of evidence. That jury convicted her on Feb. 7, 2024, of a single fraud count. Federal prosecutors sought 20 months in jail for Mosby, in addition to supervised release and the forfeiture of her Longboat Key vacation condo. But U.S. District Judge Lydia Kay Griggsby sentenced Mosby to three years supervised release, with one of those years under home confinement, along with the forfeiture of the condo. On appeal, the circuit court rejected her claims on the 'ambiguous' form, saying it was without merit. It was 'adequately clear' on the form what 'adverse financial consequences' meant, Circuit Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote in the ruling. But the court agreed with Mosby on the jury instruction, saying the trial court's instruction to jurors regarding the mortgage fraud case's venue was indeed 'erroneously overbroad.' Thacker's opinion said those instructions 'went so far as to say that the Government did not need to 'prove that the crime itself was committed in this district,''only that acts leading up to the crime were done in Maryland. That was wrong, Thacker wrote. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE After vacating the mortage fraud conviction, Thacker wrote, the court had to vacate the forfeiture of Mosby's condo in Longboat Key, what had originally been ordered because the condo was believed to be 'the fruit of the alleged mortgage fraud.' In a partial dissent, Judge Paul Niemeyer said he would have upheld the mortgage fraud conviction along with the perjury convictions. He wrote that the evidence at her trial 'amply and clearly demonstrated that venue was proper in Maryland by a preponderance of the evidence.' 'It showed that Mosby made the false statement in Maryland by obtaining and signing the false gift letter in Maryland and that she transmitted the statement from Maryland by uploading it to the Internet for use at the closing in Florida,' Niemeyer wrote. 'She also engaged her husband to wire the funds from Maryland in support of the gift letter. ' Those were all elements of the crime, which justfied its trial in Maryland, he wrote.
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Court overturns ex-state attorney's mortgage fraud conviction but upholds perjury convictions
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a mortgage fraud conviction of former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who gained a national profile for charging police officers in a Black man's death. But the court upheld two perjury convictions relating to real estate she purchased. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision that jury instruction in the mortgage fraud case was 'erroneously overbroad" concerning the proper court venue. The case was tried in Maryland relating to property she bought in Florida. 'As a result of our decision to vacate the mortgage fraud conviction, the forfeiture order related to Appellant's Longboat Key Condo, which was obtained as the fruit of the alleged mortgage fraud, is also vacated,' Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote. Judge Paul Niemeyer dissented in part. While the majority ruling contended that the government failed to introduce evidence sufficient to show that the crime was committed in Maryland and that the district court's venue instruction was erroneous, Niemeyer wrote he would have rejected both arguments and affirmed the district court's judgment. The court upheld two perjury convictions, saying it found 'no error in the district court's adjudication of Appellant's perjury convictions.' The court rejected arguments by Mosby that the admitted evidence misled jurors. 'In sum, the district court did not err in permitting the Government to introduce evidence as to how Appellant utilized the funds she withdrew from her retirement accounts,' the court said. 'That evidence was probative as to whether Appellant suffered 'adverse financial consequences.' And the probative value of that evidence was not substantially outweighed by a risk of undue prejudice or jury confusion.' Mosby, 45, was spared jail time at her sentencing last year. Her sentence included 12 months of home confinement, which she concluded last month. She also was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and three years of supervised release. Mosby was convicted of lying about her finances to make early withdrawals from retirement funds during the COVID-19 pandemic and fraudulently claiming that her own $5,000 was a gift from her then-husband as she closed on a Florida condominium. Mosby, who was Baltimore's state's attorney from 2015 to 2023, has maintained her innocence. Mosby gained national attention when she charged officers in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, which led to riots and protests in the city. After three officers were acquitted, Mosby's office dropped charges against the other three officers. She ultimately served two terms as state's attorney before she was indicted and lost reelection. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Mosby withdrew $90,000 from Baltimore city's deferred compensation plan and used it to make down payments on vacation homes in Kissimmee and Longboat Key, Florida. Prosecutors argued that Mosby improperly accessed the funds under provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act by falsely claiming that the pandemic had harmed her travel-oriented side business. Mosby's lawyers argued that the retirement funds came from her own income and that no one was defrauded because she paid an early-withdrawal penalty and all federal taxes on the money. The government said that money remained the property of the city until she was legally eligible, and her perjury harmed everyone who followed the rules during the coronavirus pandemic. The mortgage fraud conviction overturned by the appeals court on Friday stemmed from a $5,000 'gift letter' she submitted when taking a loan to buy the Longboat Key property. Prosecutors said the letter falsely stated that Mosby's husband was giving her a $5,000 gift for the closing when it actually was her own money. Mosby applied for a presidential pardon last year. In a letter to then-President Joe Biden, the Congressional Black Caucus expressed support for her cause. Biden did not grant a pardon.
Al Arabiya
11-07-2025
- Al Arabiya
Court overturns ex-state attorney's mortgage fraud conviction but upholds perjury convictions
ANNAPOLIS, Md. – A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a mortgage fraud conviction of former Baltimore States Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who gained a national profile for charging police officers in a Black man's death. But the court upheld two perjury convictions relating to real estate she purchased. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision that jury instruction in the mortgage fraud case was erroneously overbroad concerning the proper court venue. The case was tried in Maryland relating to property she bought in Florida. 'As a result of our decision to vacate the mortgage fraud conviction, the forfeiture order related to Appellant's Longboat Key Condo, which was obtained as the fruit of the alleged mortgage fraud, is also vacated,' Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote. Judge Paul Niemeyer dissented in part. While the majority ruling contended that the government failed to introduce evidence sufficient to show that the crime was committed in Maryland and that the district court's venue instruction was erroneous, Niemeyer wrote he would have rejected both arguments and affirmed the district court's judgment. The court upheld two perjury convictions, saying it found no error in the district court's adjudication of Appellant's perjury convictions. The court rejected arguments by Mosby that the admitted evidence misled jurors. 'In sum, the district court did not err in permitting the Government to introduce evidence as to how Appellant utilized the funds she withdrew from her retirement accounts,' the court said. 'That evidence was probative as to whether Appellant suffered adverse financial consequences. And the probative value of that evidence was not substantially outweighed by a risk of undue prejudice or jury confusion.' Mosby, 45, was spared jail time at her sentencing last year. Her sentence included 12 months of home confinement, which she concluded last month. She also was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and three years of supervised release. Mosby was convicted of lying about her finances to make early withdrawals from retirement funds during the COVID-19 pandemic and fraudulently claiming that her own $5,000 was a gift from her then-husband as she closed on a Florida condominium. Mosby, who was Baltimore's states attorney from 2015 to 2023, has maintained her innocence. Mosby gained national attention when she charged officers in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, which led to riots and protests in the city. After three officers were acquitted, Mosby's office dropped charges against the other three officers. She ultimately served two terms as states attorney before she was indicted and lost reelection. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Mosby withdrew $90,000 from Baltimore city's deferred compensation plan and used it to make down payments on vacation homes in Kissimmee and Longboat Key, Florida. Prosecutors argued that Mosby improperly accessed the funds under provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act by falsely claiming that the pandemic had harmed her travel-oriented side business. Mosby's lawyers argued that the retirement funds came from her own income and that no one was defrauded because she paid an early-withdrawal penalty and all federal taxes on the money. The government said that money remained the property of the city until she was legally eligible, and her perjury harmed everyone who followed the rules during the coronavirus pandemic. The mortgage fraud conviction overturned by the appeals court on Friday stemmed from a $5,000 gift letter she submitted when taking a loan to buy the Longboat Key property. Prosecutors said the letter falsely stated that Mosby's husband was giving her a $5,000 gift for the closing when it actually was her own money. Mosby applied for a presidential pardon last year. In a letter to then-President Joe Biden, the Congressional Black Caucus expressed support for her cause. Biden did not grant a pardon.
The Independent
11-07-2025
- The Independent
Court overturns ex-state attorney's mortgage fraud conviction but upholds perjury convictions
A federal appeals court on Friday overturned a mortgage fraud conviction of former Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby, who gained a national profile for charging police officers in a Black man's death. But the court upheld two perjury convictions relating to real estate she purchased. The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in a 2-1 decision that jury instruction in the mortgage fraud case was 'erroneously overbroad" concerning the proper court venue. The case was tried in Maryland relating to property she bought in Florida. 'As a result of our decision to vacate the mortgage fraud conviction, the forfeiture order related to Appellant's Longboat Key Condo, which was obtained as the fruit of the alleged mortgage fraud, is also vacated,' Judge Stephanie Thacker wrote. Judge Paul Niemeyer dissented in part. While the majority ruling contended that the government failed to introduce evidence sufficient to show that the crime was committed in Maryland and that the district court's venue instruction was erroneous, Niemeyer wrote he would have rejected both arguments and affirmed the district court's judgment. The court upheld two perjury convictions, saying it found 'no error in the district court's adjudication of Appellant's perjury convictions.' The court rejected arguments by Mosby that the admitted evidence misled jurors. 'In sum, the district court did not err in permitting the Government to introduce evidence as to how Appellant utilized the funds she withdrew from her retirement accounts,' the court said. 'That evidence was probative as to whether Appellant suffered 'adverse financial consequences.' And the probative value of that evidence was not substantially outweighed by a risk of undue prejudice or jury confusion.' Mosby, 45, was spared jail time at her sentencing last year. Her sentence included 12 months of home confinement, which she concluded last month. She also was sentenced to 100 hours of community service and three years of supervised release. Mosby was convicted of lying about her finances to make early withdrawals from retirement funds during the COVID-19 pandemic and fraudulently claiming that her own $5,000 was a gift from her then-husband as she closed on a Florida condominium. Mosby, who was Baltimore's state's attorney from 2015 to 2023, has maintained her innocence. Mosby gained national attention when she charged officers in the 2015 death of Freddie Gray, which led to riots and protests in the city. After three officers were acquitted, Mosby's office dropped charges against the other three officers. She ultimately served two terms as state's attorney before she was indicted and lost reelection. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, Mosby withdrew $90,000 from Baltimore city's deferred compensation plan and used it to make down payments on vacation homes in Kissimmee and Longboat Key, Florida. Prosecutors argued that Mosby improperly accessed the funds under provisions of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act by falsely claiming that the pandemic had harmed her travel-oriented side business. Mosby's lawyers argued that the retirement funds came from her own income and that no one was defrauded because she paid an early-withdrawal penalty and all federal taxes on the money. The government said that money remained the property of the city until she was legally eligible, and her perjury harmed everyone who followed the rules during the coronavirus pandemic. The mortgage fraud conviction overturned by the appeals court on Friday stemmed from a $5,000 'gift letter' she submitted when taking a loan to buy the Longboat Key property. Prosecutors said the letter falsely stated that Mosby's husband was giving her a $5,000 gift for the closing when it actually was her own money. Mosby applied for a presidential pardon last year. In a letter to then-President Joe Biden, the Congressional Black Caucus expressed support for her cause. Biden did not grant a pardon.
Washington Post
11-07-2025
- Washington Post
Baltimore's Marilyn Mosby can keep Florida vacation home, court rules
Former Baltimore state's attorney Marilyn Mosby's conviction for mortgage fraud has been overturned by a federal appeals court, which ruled that jurors had not properly considered whether the crime occurred in Maryland. The perjury convictions of Baltimore's former top prosecutor remain in place, for lying to receive pandemic-related relief. But a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit threw out a requirement that Mosby forfeit one of two Florida homes at the center of her legal troubles.
