Bust Me if You Can

As for that waterfront townhome that Brady expressed an interest in: The lady who was selling it tried to cash Brady's deposit check, only to have it returned, stamped "Refer to Maker." She was shocked, since the lawyer working as escrow agent had vouched for the funds, and messing with money held in escrow is a state offense. The woman contacted Donald Corbin, who in turn gave a sworn statement saying that he never wrote any such letter. Stationery had been stolen from his and Eddy's law office, he insisted, and his signature forged. There was little the seller could do besides move on and find a new buyer. And file a report with the Broward Sheriff's Office.

---

In the fall of 2006, Charles Brady actually did sign up to take classes at Harvard. Not Harvard College but the Harvard Extension School.

Of course, Harvard University is a massive, sprawling corporation whose holdings include a law school, a divinity school, a research facility in Italy, and a forest in Petersham, Massachussetts. Harvard College is the exclusive liberal arts institution at the university 's core — elite, prestigious, and perpetually ranked number one. The college accepts only 2,100 incoming students per year. For anyone outside the Ivy League, the distinction is easy to miss.

The Extension School is part of the university, but it requires no transcripts, no undergraduate degree. There's little to the application process: Just sign up and pay. Current Harvard College student Jeffrey Kwong puts it this way: "Anyone can get in to the extension school. They advertise on buses. It's like the DeVry University of Harvard. Like, Hilary Duff went to Harvard Extension School."

Kwong is Vice-President of Harvard Right to Life and President of the Harvard Republican Club. He remembers Chas Brady showing up at a number of meetings in Cambridge beginning that fall semester.

"He seemed very personable,very sincere," Kwong says. "He had that Southern charm."

Kwong says Brady told members of the club that he'd graduated from Harvard Law School but had yet to find his passion in life, so he had returned to pursue a master's degree in economics.

The story seemed plausible enough — for anyone who could afford it. And Brady seemed able to. He took the group out in a limousine, students say. He bought one girl an expensive camera. He donated $250 to the Right to Life cause. During one group outing — to a conservative political action conference in Washington, D.C. — Brady promised the group he'd introduce them to a congressman friend, but when it didn't pan out, he apologized by buying everyone dinner.

One young woman in the group says Brady seemed gentlemanly, opening doors and minding his manners. He dropped vague references to flying airplanes and being an escort for cotillion dances. "He said it in an unassuming way, not in a boastful way — which made it even more believable."

One student considered going into a business venture with Brady but felt compelled to look into his claims before laying any money on the line. Soon, "we had our alarms up, " says Kwong. A member of the group checked out the law school and found no record of Brady ever attending. Another discovered that Harvard didn't even offer a master's program in economics.

Collectively, the group felt some sympathy for Brady. They knew the pressures that came with the Harvard label, and they figured he exaggerated just to fit in with the high achievers around him. To spare him embarrassment, the group refrained from confronting him. But, says Kwong, "everyone whispered." Then, in March or April of last year, "he kind of disappeared."

Right about then, Brady was bumping into Dr. Zachariah at the Wellness Center.

---

By this time, official complaints were piling up in the offices of the Florida Bar. But the Bar's power was limited: Chas Brady didn't have a license it could revoke. Officials began to think this was a matter best handled by law enforcement.

On June 11, 2007, based on the Fardette and DiMaria matters, Brady was arrested on charges of grand theft and unlicensed practice of law, both felonies. He posted bond.

A month later, Steve Kafin — a real estate investor and owner of APG Meridian, Inc. — was working on a big real estate deal. Before the matter could be completed, Kafin needed to settle a lien issue with the City of Pompano Beach. He'd met Chas Brady and Jim Eddy at a closing a year earlier, where according to court documents, "Brady was introduced to Kafin as Eddy's law partner."

Kafin paid Eddy's firm $14,000 to take care of the lien. Brady simply faxed over a Satisfaction of Lien to the title company that was holding the funds. The only problem? As Pompano's Special Magistrate Clerk would soon discover, the document was forged. Police reports say the fake resulted in the cancellation of a $2.9 million real estate deal.

Brady was arrested again, this time on charges of "uttering a forged instrument." For the second time, he was released on bond.