Was Sunny Sheu, foe of judicial corruption, murdered?

From the BlackStarNews:

The Background Story
Sheu’s ordeal began over 10 years ago when a bank representative knocked on his door and said he was there to inspect the house for its new owner. The problem was that Sheu had never sold the house. It turns out that someone had forged critical documents and used them to illegally sell the property.

Sheu alerted all relevant authorities; including the police, the bank that held the mortgage, and the title insurer of the property. Eventually the parties involved in forging the documents were prosecuted, pleaded guilty to forgery, and went to jail.

Sheu hoped that with all the evidence in his favor, the matter would be quickly resolved–it was actually only the beginning of his nightmare.

But Centex Home Equity, the bank that held the original mortgage, acted as if the fraudulent sale had been legitimate, ignoring all the documentation submitted by Sheu regarding the fraud, including the police report he’d filed.

Centex filed a lawsuit on December 12, 2001, against Sheu in State Supreme Court, in Queens County. The bank wanted a default judgment on the property and foreclosure, claiming that the “new owners” were delinquent on mortgage payments. In reality, of course, there was never any legal “new owner”.

The Centex case against Sheu went before Judge Golia, in Queens County. Sheu said he was stunned when Judge Golia also ignored the obvious fact that the “sale” had been fraudulent, which would obviate the claim against him. Instead of immediately restoring Sheu’s rightful ownership, he said, Golia allowed the lawsuit to proceed, eventually leading to the foreclosure of Shue’s home.

Worse yet, the judge let the case drag out for 10 years, with numerous postponements, in essence milking Sheu of all his resources. At some point, Sheu could no longer afford attorney fees and he had to represent himself.

Clearly, simple discovery— examination of documents by the court- would have proven the fraud in the alleged property sale, but Golia never allowed this fundamental judicial procedure to take place, despite Sheu’s numerous appeals, he said.

For 10 grueling years, Sheu said, he was consistently denied the opportunity to present evidentiary documentation proving that the fraud had taken place and that Centex had no right to foreclose on his home.

Sheu’s home was first foreclosed on January 28, 2005 and Centex “bought” the property for $1,000 from Amy Cheng, a pseudonymous fraudster involved in the fictitious sale. “How can you buy property from someone who does not exist?” Sheu had asked me, when I first started writing about his case.

Sheu also wrote Centex executive, Gerry King and New York State Chief Administrative Judge –now Chief Judge– Jonathan Lippman, complaining about Judge Golia’s conduct and accusing the judge of “discrimination” and “bias.”

Sheu demanded that Golia recuse himself from the case; the judge refused.

Sheu was persistent, writing to numerous elected public officials and filing an appeal against the foreclosure. Aware that he had notified various elected officials about what he claimed were the “biased” rulings, Sheu said, Judge Golia eventually reversed his own earlier decision and the initial foreclosure was rescinded, records showed.

Still, the judge refused to restore ownership of the property to Sheu.

Golia was so adamant to deprive him of justice, Sheu contended, that he came up with a remarkable decision. Golia now ruled that even though Sheu’s home had been illegally sold years earlier, since Centex had already paid off the mortgage, the bank now owned the property under a doctrine known as “Equitable Subrogation.”

“How can equitable subrogation apply to stolen property?” Sheu said, in an interview with The Black Star News, referring to the fraudulent sale. “This means if I have a lot of money, like Centex, I can pay off anybody’s mortgage anywhere without their permission and then take possession of their home and kick them out?”

Sheu continued to spar with Judge Golia. Finally, early in 2010, his property was foreclosed on again, this time conclusively.

Be sure to read this article in its entirety here…

Sheu Investigates Judge Golia
With this in mind, Sheu set out to investigate the personal financial disclosure filings of the Judge Golia, which are public records, available by request from the Office of Court Administration’s (OCA) Ethics Committee. These filings detail the financial assets of all public officials, as a means of curtailing potential conflicts of interest.

Sheu searched the internet for documentation of Golia’s real estate holdings, hoping to find concealed assets that had not been declared on his financial disclosure form. If he could prove financial impropriety by Golia, Sheu reasoned, perhaps he could get Golia removed from the bench and finally receive a fair hearing for his case from another judge.

Sheu, who was a computer expert, searched the internet for evidence of properties he concluded were owned by Golia. Armed with a list of these properties, Sheu then went to the OCA Ethics Department to obtain Golia’s financial disclosure forms.

According to Sheu, he discovered major discrepancies between Golia’s actual properties and the ones declared on his financial disclosure forms, including a million dollar beach house on Breezy Point on Long Island, which was described in a local magazine as belonging to the judge, and which is publicly listed as being owned by the Golia family.

On November 29, 2009, Sheu alerted Janice Howard, the director of the OCA Ethics Department, of these apparent discrepancies.

Sheu’s complaint included the following allegations, that Judge Golia:

“..Failed to disclose fully his liabilities for 2002/2003/2004/2005/2006/2008, in that he:
- failed to disclose a mortgage held by HSBC under his wife “Roslaie Grecco” against the property
- failed to disclose a mortgage held by HSBC of “Joseph Golia and Rosalie Golia
- failed to disclose “Rosalie Grecco” employment/ income/ property
- failed to disclose “Hampton West” beach House (Breezy Point)
- interest conflict, own Flushing Bank stock (Flushing Financial Corp) and using connections” to get $750,000.000 in lower rate and mortgage more than the property market value, as NYC Dept. of Finance record, 2007 property market about $220,000.00.”

This Newspaper could not get Judge Golia to address these allegations that Sheu submitted to OCA since he declined to be interviewed.

Yet Janice Howard, director of the OCA Ethics Department, did ask for an amended financial disclosure statement from Golia.

By law, the amended disclosure form is the final opportunity for a public official to “come clean” about any errors or omissions on their original disclosure. The amended form is required to be submitted within two weeks of notice, but Sheu had to wait three months to receive the document from the judge.

Golia’s Amended Financial Form
Finally, on June 23rd, 2010, Sheu was personally handed the amended disclosure form by Janice Howard at the Ethics Committee office. Sheu discovered that even the amended disclosure form still neglected to mention the beach house as well any of the other properties Sheu believed were owned by Golia.

The only asset Golia included on the amended disclosure form that had not been cited on the original was a “vacant lot” in Queens that Golia claimed was worth less than $1,000, and therefore did not require reporting.

When Sheu received the amended form at the Ethics Committee office, he was accompanied by two associates, one of whom recorded Sheu’s reaction to reading the amended form. On the recording, Sheu can be heard exclaiming "Now I’ve got him!...I’ve got enough evidence to put Golia in Jail."

Three days later, Sunny Sheu was dead. His associates don't believe it was a coincidence.