Opinion ID: 199159
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Stein

Text: 81 Stein argues that there was insufficient evidence to support her conviction because she simply followed Golenbock's lead at every step of the way, without knowing that Golenbock was concealing the property from the bankruptcy trustee. She contends that the evidence showed that only Golenbock and Otis controlled the property. There is no support for the conclusion, Stein argues, that she knowingly retained an interest in the Wellfleet property or that she intentionally concealed (or conspired to conceal) it from her bankruptcy creditors. We disagree, based on reasonable inferences from other evidence described in section II.C., supra, as well as from the following evidence. 82 Stein filed her bankruptcy separately from Golenbock's. Stein's bankruptcy schedules and statement of financial affairs not only failed to list the Wellfleet property as a property in which she held an interest, but also failed to list the Cape Cod Five as a creditor, failed to disclose (as the forms required had Stein's interest been transferred, as claimed, the previous December) that she had previously been a part owner of the Wellfleet property within the year before she filed for bankruptcy, and failed to disclose the civil litigation relating to a hot tub at the Wellfleet property. In other words, there is evidence that even if Stein was unaware that she had retained a continuing interest in the Wellfleet property after the alleged December 31, 1989, transfer to Otis, she failed to make appropriate disclosure as to multiple relevant aspects of her relationship to the Wellfleet property, including her involvement before the transfer. 83 Stein attended 341 meetings and answered questions, affirming that the information contained in the schedules was truthful and accurate. Her bankruptcy attorney, Jeffrey Schreiber, testified that all the information on the schedules was obtained from Stein or Golenbock. Schreiber testified that he did not learn of the Wellfleet property from Stein or Golenbock, however, but from a B.B.O. attorney only a couple of years before the trial in this case. 84 Stein contended at trial that the Wellfleet property in fact was legitimately and wholly conveyed to Otis nine months before the bankruptcy filing. Sufficient evidence would have enabled a reasonable jury to conclude otherwise, however. First, while the deed to Otis was dated and notarized nine months earlier, it was not recorded until October 4, 1990, a week after the filing of the individual bankruptcy petitions by Stein and Golenbock. Stein's testimony as to where the deed was signed and notarized was confused. She testified that the deed was signed and notarized in Andover, which is in Essex County, but on its face the deed indicates that it was executed and notarized in Middlesex County, where Golenbock and Stein resided. Second, Golenbock and Stein continued to pay the mortgage and other expenses relating to the property after December 31, 1989, strongly suggesting no actual transfer to Otis. They did not receive the stated consideration for the transfer. Their names were not changed on bills relating to the property until 1991. Stein conceded that she had never attempted to list the property for sale with a real estate broker, but had just talked to Otis, a close friend, about it. Additionally, the Declaration of Trust for the B.Z. Realty Trust, of which Otis was supposedly the trustee, was recorded only at the time the deed was recorded; this document was purported to have been executed on August 1 of either 1989 or 1990 (both dates appeared on it). From this evidence, the jury could have concluded that Stein had never transferred nor intended to transfer her interest in trust to Otis on December 31, 1989, prior to the bankruptcy. Indeed, the jury could have determined that, even if prepared on that date, the deed was not delivered then or that it may even have been made later and backdated, after Golenbock and Stein had filed for bankruptcy. In any case, the evidence suggests that the deed had been fabricated as part of defendants' scheme to conceal the property from bankruptcy creditors. 85 Stein testified that between 1992 and 1994, the Wellfleet property payments were all made from the Adams Street Trust account because Otis had purchased the beneficial interest in that trust. This testimony was corroborated by that of her secretary, Beverly Rubin. However, neither Stein nor Rubin provided any supporting documents. Furthermore, there was contradictory evidence: checks and other payments relating to the Wellfleet property, made during that time period, from accounts and sources other than the Adams Street Trust account, including their bankruptcy debtor-in-possession checking account. In addition, Stein's signature appears on non-Adams Street Trust checks in the early 1990s on payments for the Wellfleet property, after the property was sold to Otis. Furthermore, after Stein and Golenbock received their bankruptcy discharges, but while their bankruptcy cases were still open, they began paying the Cape Cod Five loans directly from an account in Golenbock's name. Two of those checks were signed by Stein in October, 1995. Moreover, despite the stated consideration of $108,000, no funds appear to have changed hands as between Otis and the purported sellers, nor was the Cape Cod Five notified of the purported sale to Otis. 86 Hence, the jury could have concluded that the sale to Otis was a sham and that Golenbock and Stein paid the Wellfleet expenses from their own funds, and that Stein's testimony at trial about the payments was false. See United States v. Jimenez-Perez, 869 F.2d 9, 11 (1st Cir. 1989) (the jury could legitimately have presumed that the fabrication was all the more proof of [defendants'] guilt). As the evidence was sufficient for the jury to have concluded that Stein knowingly and fraudulently concealed her interest in the Wellfleet property from her bankruptcy creditors, and conspired with Golenbock and Otis to do so, there was no clear and gross injustice in her conviction.