RELEASE: From Andrew Bennett Spark, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa Economic Crimes

From an insider at Pam Bondi’s administration…

RELEASE:

From Andrew Bennett Spark, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa Economic Crimes

August 8, 2011

Cell: 941.321.5927

I. Introduction

By way of introduction, I have served as an Assistant Attorney General in the Economic
Crimes Division of the Florida Attorney General’s Office since March of 2004, first in
Orlando, and the last 6 ½ years in Tampa. I have been reading articles concerning the
controversies swirling around the Attorney General’s Office with respect to the forced
resignations of June Clarkson and Theresa Edwards (from whom I took over day-to-day
handling of the ProVest investigation), and the employment of Joe Jacquot with Lender
Processing Services, one of the companies at the heart of the foreclosure robo-signing
issues. While I have a significantly different philosophy concerning these cases than
Clarkson, Edwards, and most other homeowner advocates, the people of the State of
Florida are entitled to fair and honest government, independent of personal connections
and powerful interests, and I have decided to speak out.

As an important caveat, please note that the below contains various factual statements,
and asks questions. If I ask a question, it is because I truly do not know the answer, not
because I am implying any particular answer to the question.

II. Former Director of Economic Crimes Mary Leontakianakos now works for
foreclosure law firm Marshall Watson

Joe Jacquot is not the only high-ranking recent member of the Attorney General’s Office
to now be working with a company which has been the subject of one of our foreclosure
investigations. Mary Leontakianakos, who was Director of Economic Crimes until
approximately January 3 of this year has, according to The Florida Bar, taken a job at
foreclosure firm Marshall Watson.

http://www.floridabar.org/names.nsf/0/C1D818F4CF8FA1EE85256A8400081E2D?Ope
nDocument Leontakianakos was centrally involved in the foreclosure investigations
while leading our Division, including the investigation of Marshall Watson:
http://www.abc-7.com/Global/story.asp?S=12968488

It appears that Watson and/or Leontakianakos have been secreting her employment from
the public. By using a personal email address as her contact email address rather than the
Marshall Watson email address suffix MarshallWatson.com, Leontakianakos has been
able to avoid search functions which would reveal her affiliation. It is through the use of
email suffixes that one may search the Florida Bar’s database for former employees of
the foreclosure firms under investigation. In addition, Watson has taken down the
portion of his website showing the attorneys in the firm; it appears to be the only portion
of his website that is inaccessible from elsewhere on the firm’s website (interestingly
enough, Watson’s own attorney profile on that portion of the website is easily found
directly from a Google search, and so does Caryn Graham’s, but there’s none for
Leontakianakos)..

As has been widely reported, the Attorney General’s Office entered into a settlement with
Marshall Watson in March of this year. A copy of the settlement agreement with
Marshall Watson is found here: http://myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/SKNS-
8FAHED/$file/WatsonAVC.pdf Note that Paragraph 4.1 of the agreement requires
Marshall Watson to name a liaison to the Attorney General’s Office. Is Mary
Leontakianakos that liaison? I do not know. However, Leontakianakos’ address on The
Florida Bar website is listed as Fort Lauderdale, and yet a search of the website of the
Broward County Clerk of Court reveals that she has not appeared as an attorney in a
lawsuit in Broward County – ever.

If Leontakianakos is that liaison, would she have been switching sides during the course
of a controversy, Rule 4-1.9 of The Florida Bar states,

“[a] lawyer who has formerly represented a client in a matter shall not thereafter:
(a) represent another person in the same or a substantially related matter in which that
person’s interests are materially adverse to the interests of the former client unless
the former client gives informed consent;”

Of course, the Economic Crimes Division acts in a parens patriae role as a representative
of the people of the State of Florida. Consent of the people of the state cannot
meaningfully be given in such a situation – and judging by the reaction of so many of
people in the state the past few weeks since the Clarkson/Edwards/Jacquot story broke, it
is safe to say such consent by the people would not be given even if it meaningfully could
be given.

The Case Report for the investigation indicates that attorney Caryn Graham is the “point
person” to contact at Watson for concerns about the AVC. According to The Florida Bar
website, Graham is still with the Watson firm. Watson recently hired former Broward
Chief Judge Tobin in a supervisory capacity. Indeed, the Miami Herald reported that
Tobin said he would not spend much time in the courtroom.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/05/18/2222892/browards-chief-judge-resigns.html If
Leontakianakos is not actually the liaison, despite the entry about Graham in the Case
Report, this begs a few questions, one of which is what, if anything, Leontakianakos is
doing there?

The other question that arises is whether Leontakianakos’ hiring by Watson is connected
to the settlement. The settlement agreement does not specify as such; however, I have
been told by someone in my office that in another case some years back, another highranking
individual with Economic Crimes received a job with a subsequent employer out
of settlement proceeds from a case – and the connection between the settlement and the
job was not disclosed. Perhaps tellingly, the Attorney Geneal’s press release concerning
the Watson settlement states, “The Marshall Watson firm fully cooperated with the
investigation since its inception.”

http://myfloridalegal.com/__852562220065EE67.nsf/0/478149A91AA0E2528525785E0
06C1EED?Open&Highlight=0,marshall,watson During her tenure as Director of
Economic Crimes, Leontakianakos encouraged side agreements that were
contemporaneous with but not memorialized in the formal settlement documents
(“AVC”s). Perhaps as some sort of Freudian-like slip reflective of what may be in effect
a golden parachute, on the Bar website Leontakianakos still describes her practice in the
“Occupation” field as “Government attorney.”

The Marshall Watson settlement contains an unusual provision, paragraph 6.1, requiring
the Attorney General to close the investigation upon the execution by all parties. It is
typical for our office to close investigations following execution, and parties do typically
want the public to know that the investigation is closed; what it is unusual, however, at
least in my experience, is for the settlement agreement to explicitly state as such
memorializing the closing as a priority. Why the extra concern? (Interestingly enough,
despite that provision, I should note that the investigation is now open – I don’t know
whether it remained opened or was reopened).

III.Powerful interests have influence

Be sure to check out the entire release below…

Wow…

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4closureFraud.org

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RELEASE: From Andrew Bennett Spark, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa Economic Crimes