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West Palm Beach Florida Federal Criminal Defense Legal Blog
Federal Trial of Palm Beach Developer, Wife and Real Estate Lawyer Delayed
A federal judge delayed the criminal trial of Palm House developer Robert Matthews, his wife and a real estate attorney until next summer. All three defendants, who are free on bond, face charges related to the unfinished Palm House hotel-condominium project in Palm...
The Top 10 “Most Depraved” Fraudulent Schemes in South Florida
The Sun Sentinel published an article today asking "What is it about South Florida that makes the region such an effective hatchery for scams and schemes?" Today's article cites to a 2015 article that calls South Florida the nation's organized fraud capital,...
West Palm Man Pleads Guilty to International Cell Phone Fraud Scheme
A former West Palm Beach, Florida resident pleaded guilty today in federal court the Southern District of Florida to conspiracy, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft in connection with a sophisticated international cell phone fraud scheme that involved compromising cellphone customers’ accounts and “cloning” their phones to make fraudulent international calls.
Port St. Lucie Tax Preparer Convicted of Filing False Tax Returns
A Port St. Lucie, Florida, man was convicted by a federal jury yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida of ten counts of aiding and assisting in the filing of false income tax returns and three counts of filing false income tax returns. This case dates back to April 2014 when the FBI announced the filing of federal charges against 25 defendants in 19 separate cases in the Southern District of Florida dealing with thousands of stolen identities and millions of dollars of fraudulent identity theft tax filings.
Fort Lauderdale Financial Advisor Pleads Guilty to $16M Fraud
A Fort Lauderdale broker for Liberty International Financial Services ("Liberty") has pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud in the Southern District of Florida. According to the plea documents, from January 2010 through October 2013, Salvatore...
Wellington Pharmacist Found Guilty of Health Care Fraud
As previously blogged on this site, on June 28, 2018 the Department of Justice announced what was called “the largest health-care fraud takedown in history,” with more than 1,000 law enforcement officers charging 601 people — including 76 doctors, 23 pharmacists, 19...
NACDL: Federal Defendants Penalized if They Don’t Plead Guilty
In a recent publication, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) found, “There is ample evidence that federal criminal defendants are being coerced to plead guilty because the penalty for exercising their constitutional rights is simply too high...
SEC Alleges Cash Advance Company Defrauded Investors out of $287M
The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges against Hallandale Beach-based 1 Global Capital and former CEO Carl Ruderman, of Aventura, for allegedly defrauding over 3,400 investors out of about $287 million. Read the SEC Press Release here: SEC...
Former Vero Beach Attorney Sentenced for Mortgage Fraud Scheme
Eric Granitur, a former Vero Beach real estate and probate attorney, was sentenced yesterday in the Southern District of Florida (West Palm Beach Division) to twelve months and a day in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release. Granitur was...
Card Skimming Frauds Originate in South Florida, Spread to other States
Credit card skimming is rapidly on the rise across the state of Florida, and South Florida is being called "ground zero" for skimming frauds. According to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, inspectors found 169 skimmers in 2015, 219 skimmers...
Miami Man Gets 33 Months in Fed. Prison for Card Skimming Fraud
Credit card skimming is rapidly on the rise across the state of Florida, and South Florida is being called "ground zero" for skimming frauds. According to the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, inspectors found 169 skimmers in 2015, 219 skimmers...
Ex-Swiss Banker Pleads Guilty to $1B Money Laundering Conspiracy
Matthias Krull, a German national and resident of Panama, pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in the Southern District of Florida (Miami Division) to one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. He will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Cecilia M....
DOJ Mishandled Privileged Documents in $1B Fraud Investigation
In what Justice Department officials — along with South Florida’s U.S. attorney, the FBI, and Health and Human Services agents — have described as the nation’s biggest Medicare fraud case, federal prosecutors have lost a major battle as a judge threw out key evidence...
12 Indicted in South Florida-Based Racketeering Conspiracy
A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Ohio (Cincinnati) have charged twelve individuals with operating a multistate South Florida-based moving scam that allegedly victimized more than 900 people. Five of the twelve defendants have been arrested, including...
South Florida Man Sentenced to 10 years for $1.5 Million Hurricane Relief Fraud
Emilio Vazquez, 47, of Coral Gables, Florida, was sentenced yesterday after pleading guilty in April in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to 120 months in prison, to be followed by 3 years of supervised release, for one count of wire fraud...
SEC Complaint Accuses Palm Beach Businessmen with Securities Fraud
The Securities and Exchange Commission has filed an eight-count civil complaint against Palm Beach real estate developer Robert Matthews and another businessman, Joseph Walsh, Sr., accusing them of securities fraud for misusing millions of dollars solicited from...
SEC Claims Parkland Couple Defrauded Investors out of $1.3M
A complaint filed by the Securities and Exchange Commission charges Dragon-Click Corp, its president Isaac Grossman, his wife Adriana Grossman, and her unregistered investment adviser Dragon Management, LLC with an ongoing fraudulent offering of Dragon-Click stock and...
Lawyer gets 53 month Sentence for Money Laundering-Federal Guideline
One of the most important parts of a federal criminal case is the sentencing phase when lawyers argue how the Federal Sentencing Guidelines apply. Case in point: Marcelo Reyes Lopez, a former in-house lawyer for PetroEcuador, who was sentenced to 53 months in prison...
Fugitive Lawyer Wanted by FBI for $20M Fraud Scheme Brought to Florida
Michael R. Casey, 71, a fugitive for over four years, wanted on federal charges related to an alleged $20 million investment fraud scheme, had his initial appearance yesterday before United States Magistrate Judge Lauren F. Louis in the Southern District of Florida,...
2 South Florida Residents Charged With $4.5M Fraud Scheme in Manhattan
25 defendants were charged in Manhattan Federal Court last week with a multimillion-dollar wire fraud and money laundering scheme that alleged the co-conspirators posted fake advertisements for cars and tricked victims nationwide into wiring more than $4.5 Million...
Former Boca Resident Sentenced to 66 Months for Fraud/ID Theft
A former Boca Raton man who ran a Pompano Beach tax-preparation business was sentenced last week to a total of 66 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in May to illegally using the identities of people with cerebral palsy and imprisoned inmates to file...
11th Circuit Vacates Sentence Obstruction of Justice Enhancement
Last week the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals vacated the sentence of Geovanys Guevara, remanding the case to the Southern District of Florida (Miami Division) for resentencing. Guevara, of Hialeah, was convicted by a federal jury in 2015 of three counts of causing a...
DOJ “Denaturalizing” Citizen for Failing to Disclose Past Crime
Norma Borgono, a 63 year-old Peruvian woman who has been a Miami resident for 28 years and became a U.S. citizen in 2007, was recently informed by the Department of Justice that she was being sued by the federal government to "denaturalize" her as part of an...
Bill Seeks to Eliminate Kickbacks that Exploit Recovering Addicts
Sen. Marco Rubio announced last week that he is preparing to introduce a bill to Congress that would prohibit middleman drug addiction call centers from making money off of patient referrals to rehabilitation services (i.e., "patient brokering") without verifying that...
National Health Care Fraud Takedown Charges 124 in South Florida
Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex M. Azar III, announced today the largest ever health care fraud enforcement action involving 601 charged defendants across 58 federal districts, including 165 doctors,...
