Bernard Madoff

Scott Rothstein Takes Beating In New Book Spilling Secrets Of Prostitutes And Ego

Chuck Malkus really wants you to hate Scott Rothstein. Describing the disgraced and hilariously ostentatious Rothstein, Malkus uses phrases like "orgy of fraud" and "one big rotting tapestry" and -- our favorite -- the "Pandora's Box that is Scott's brain." Malkus' book about Rothstein, Ultimate Po ... More >>

Boca Raton's Igor Cornelsen Will Pay $5 Million for Illegally Trading Burger King Stock (Um, He'll Have It His Way?)

Prominent Brazilian banker Igor Cornelsen, who spends half of his year in Boca Raton, will hand over $5.1 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission complaint that he had illegally traded Burger King stock, the oversight committee announced this week. Yes, a classic case of whopper sp ... More >>

Fear and Loathing in Tampa: Your Gonzo Guide to the Republican National Convention

Chevelle Begins Own "Occupy Movement" With Hats Off to the Bull

Herman Cain "Won" the Debate, Sure -- but How Does His Pizza Taste?

Photos by Adele Hampton​Former Godfather's Pizza CEO and current Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain has been hailed in the media as the winner of Tuesday night's debate -- and as a likely frontrunner for the candidacy -- because he does nothing more than say "nine-nine-nine" and talk ab ... More >>

Sports Agency Headed by Howard Kusnick's Son Suing Local Attorney Darren Heitner for Libel

Left to right: Howard Kusnick, baseball player Taylor Green, and Joshua Kusnick.​A Tamarac-based sports agency headed by the son of convicted Scott Rothstein cohort Howard Kusnick is suing local attorney and sports agency owner Darren Heitner, alleging he made libelous comments on his blog about t ... More >>

Broward Denies Lauderdale Lakes Bailout After City Manager's "Governmental Ponzi Scheme"

kathyhyatt.comThis sign will probably be replaced with a "for sale" sign​Apparently having negative money isn't ideal for running city like Lauderdale Lakes -- but the Broward County Commission isn't quite ready to help.Lauderdale Lakes commissioners place a lot of the blame on former City Man ... More >>

Batter Up, or New York’s Not So Finest

The Dirty Dozen: 2010's Most Despicable People

Top 5 'Justice Is Served' Moments Of The Week, From LeBron to a Former Madoff Investor

via NBC Miami​Justice, or even injustice, is a concept often taken for granted as a function of democracy served in a courtroom. That is, until weeks like this come along, and we are reminded of what happens when people take justice into their own hands, in and out of the courts. Sometimes it's ug ... More >>

Latin American Dictators Love South Florida

Klein Challenges South Florida Seniors to Choose Between Social Security and Allen West

FlickrRon Klein​For seniors who enjoy Social Security checks and Medicare coverage, Congressman Ron Klein has a message: Vote for me if you want to keep those entitlements. Vote for Allen West if you're willing to lose them. That's the theme of an ad Klein's campaign released this morning. It quot ... More >>

Tony Bova Opens VIVO Partenza in Boca Raton Less Than a Month After Covertly Closing Bova Prime

Bova, right, with the Rothsteins and V Giorgio vodka maker Victor Harvey​Only in South Florida could this happen: Tona Bova, the man who allegedly left employees unpaid, recently filed for bankruptcy, foreclosed on his home, stiffed his landlord for over $30,000 in unpaid rent, and partnered with ... More >>

Ponzi Playboy Sean Healy Blew Through the Money He Swindled

A Poor Man's Bernie Madoff Screws Haitian-Americans

A Passel of Ponzis: Bernie's Neighbor Indicted

Flickr: b_cuzzNo, this graffiti isn't in Palm Beach... yet.​Like drug dealers to the ghetto, the Ponzi schemers flocked to Palm Beach. The latest to be accused in a criminal court is Donald Anthony Young, who happened to live next door to Ponzi king Bernard Madoff.The indictment for fraud against ... More >>

Will High-Society Boca Couple Keep Their Mansion After Legal Loss?

Photo from BocaResort.comLori and David Keezer in a 2006 issue of Boca Club Life.​Just look at that happy, handsome couple! A May-December romance that surely had little to do with David Keezer's vast wealth. Indeed, Palm Beach County records show that the Keezers' crib in the Royal Palm Yacht &am ... More >>

New Times' Special Super Bowl Guide to Sex, Drugs, Gambling, and Living Large in South Florida

At Speech in West Palm Beach, Attorney General Eric Holder Touts Fraud Task Force

Flickr: MainJusticeEric Holder​What better place to promote a new Justice Department task force against financial fraud than South Florida? Specifically, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder gave his speech this afternoon at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches, which staged a luncheon in his honor at ... More >>

From Gold Toilets to Toilet Paper: Rothstein Victims Can Flush Away Grief

image courtesy Cramo Productions​If you're a victim of Fort Lauderdale's Ponzi king, Scott Rothstein, here's a grand way to spend your last $16. Granted, that's a bit more than you pay for Charmin; but this is a luxury product. There's simply no way to put a price tag on the satisfaction that come ... More >>

The Year of the Ponzi

Scott Rothstein is allegedly South Florida'a latest Ponzi king.​In 1921, Charles Ponzi began duping New Englanders with a bogus postage stamp investment scheme. He told them that by buying and selling foreign stamps -- yes, stamps --  they could see 40 percent returns. Instead, he simply took ... More >>

[UPDATED] Curse of the Holy Cross: Lauderdale Hospital Haunted by Dirty Donors

Flickr: oz.gauntletHoly Cross needs bling, but it's running out of sugar daddies.​Of all the local nonprofit organizations that have been stung by recent investment scandals, Holy Cross Medical Center wins the Triple Crown. Or is it the Grand Slam? Check out the list of medical facilities on the m ... More >>

Martini Madness: Who Cares if Rothstein Has a Few More Weeks of Freedom?

Flickr​Just what the Rothstein investigation needed: a big dose of public pressure by people who don't have a clue about the case but have some weird emotional need to see the already disgraced attorney slightly more humbled by being placed in a jail cell. That's what you've got in today's shallow ... More >>

Accused Fraudster From Michigan Had Lauderdale Condo, Post-Madoff Success

Flickr: Christopher GosselinThe Nu River Landing, where McQueen and his wife own a condo -- at least until the government snatches it.​If there's any truth to the government's allegations against David McQueen, holding on to his Fort Lauderdale condo would appear to be the least of his concerns. F ... More >>

Florida Trend Discloses Shocking News: Richest State Reps Are All Republican

Domino theory: $$ attracts $$.​If the recent ACORN video stings hadn't convinced you that the right wing is a whole bunch savvier and sneakier than the left, then a comparison of the net worth of our Florida House reps ought to definitively settle the contest. Florida Trend's look at our politicia ... More >>

Spring Fashion Trend: Fraudster Chic

Flickr: bobsorosThe modern Ponzi wears his hat low and his collar high.​In what may be the most tone-deaf, irresponsible men fashion trend since Marky Mark's sagging pantaloons, Brooks Brothers is now encouraging us to dress like Ponzi schemers and multi-millionaire welfare queens.Of course, that' ... More >>

Feds: No, Florida, You're Not Allowed to Be a Pirate Colony

Flickr User: Karen Moreau BondNobody wants to admit it, but if the federal government is going to make fraud-busting its new "War on [hot topic]," then it's going to deal another blow to the South Florida economy.It's just that fraud's what we're good at! Take the case of Christopher Maury. The West ... More >>

Bless This Mess: Is Miami-Dade Really Desperate Enough to Copy Broward Health?

As the bearer of so much bad news for the North Broward Hospital District, we should acknowledge its recent note of favorable publicity. Despite recent scandals about the commissioners' ethics, their district is in far better financial shape than the public health care district in Miami-Dade, Jackso ... More >>

Life-and-Death Situation

It's hard to stay mad at surprise Oscar winner Departures.

Your Money's No Good Here: Another Alleged Ponzi Fleecer Flees Palm Beach

Flickr User: mspdigipartiesTom Petters with his daughter JenniferHey, look another house just got sold on Ponzi Island! Sorry, I mean Palm Beach. Easy mistake, since alleged Ponzi schemer Tom Petters is a neighbor of convicted $67 billion Ponzi schemer Bernard Madoff, among other Island residents li ... More >>

For Next Federal Prosecutor, a Million-Dollar Question

For the new U.S. attorney, who will come from among the 16 names on this list, busting financial fraud will be the top priority in South Florida federal courts. And although those cases are endlessly complex, it's fairly simple to get an overview of the region's candidates for criminal prosecution: ... More >>

Joel Steinger and Mutual Benefits Corp. Stole a Billion Dollars by Peddling Bogus Life Insurance Policies

Bogey's Corner Comes to South Florida

It's been years since the television cameras stopped rolling, but Mike "Bogey" Boguslawski, the television icon who turned consumer reporting into performance art, is still plying his trade -- now in South Florida. A household name in Southern California, Bogey's gruff confrontational style endeared ... More >>

Depressed Palm Beach County Wants New P.R. Campaign

Flickr user: thewentworths1Come back, tourists! We're not that depressing.The Palm Beach County commissioners voted this week to spend $3 million on a new advertising campaign to boost tourism. Meanwhile, in totally unrelated news, The Business Insider, an online publication, named West Palm Beach o ... More >>

Liberty City Charade Ends With Injustice

Yesterday morning's headline on the top of the front page of the Sun-Sentinel was, "5 Guilty In Sears Tower Plot." This morning's lead headline is: "Desperation Turns Deadly Off Florida." They are connected in a way, because both are about Haitians. The first about several Haitians from Liberty Cit ... More >>

Abrams on Tribune: "You Can FEEL the Fear"

[REMINDER: PBS Frontline show on Bernie Madoff and his lieutenants, Frank Avellino and Michael Bienes, is on tonight at 9 10 p.m., including an interview with Bienes, the Fort Lauderdale "philanthropist" and backer of the Broward County Library, Holy Cross Hospital, St. Thomas Aquinas, and other loc ... More >>

R. Allen Stanford's story tells how one eccentric billionaire can help bring the global economy to its knees

Palm Beach Rabbi Invents Religious Divide, May Be Aiding Island's Sharks

Rabbi Michael ResnickA Palm Beach rabbi tells ABC News that the Bernie Madoff controversy "gives red meat to anti-Semites" and has caused a religious divide on the island. Rabbi Michael Resnick's comments not only fueled this online story but also a follow-up 20/20 report tonight on the town's Holy ... More >>

The Line To Lansky: Steinger Linked To Ben-Veniste, Jewish Mafia

We know that Joel Steinger, the mastermind of the billion-dollar Mutual Benefits Ponzi scheme with ties to several Broward politicians (Steve Geller, Stacy Ritter, Ellyn Bogdanoff, and others), had connections to Colombian drug cartels. Now we have evidence of another intriguing ... More >>

Mutual Benefits czar Joel Steinger manipulated local politicians and the state legislature. But divorce court too?

Local Financial Analyst Packages Stanford Case for SEC

As we reported on this blog Friday, speculation has been flying through the financial community that Stanford et al could be operating an enormous Ponzi scheme a la Bernie Madoff. Now it's official: The US Securities and Exchange Commission filed suit in Dallas Monday against Stanford ... More >>

A Ponzi Scheme in Boca? Stanford Group Co. Won't Talk

Speculation is rampant in the financial press that R. Allen Stanford -- who Forbes magazine estimates to have a fortune of $2.2 billion, making him #205 on their list of wealthiest Americans -- is the next Bernie Madoff. Forbes says Stanford Financial Group has $51 billion in assets under ... More >>

Snitches Turn in Kids Who TP'd Madoff's Place, Bogus Purses Go Unmatched With Shoes

The mystery of who toiled papered Bernie Madoff's Palm Beach home has been solved. Two teenagers from Michigan have been fingered as the TP culprits. The kids apparently bragged to their friends after they got back from vacation, which then tipped off the Palm Beach police, according to this story i ... More >>

Developer Tibor Hollo Helped Build Miami

An epic condo bust can't burst his bubble.

FBI: Fort Lauderdale Developer Bribes Officials

Fort Lauderdale developer Sean Michaels is implicated in a corruption scandal in sleepy southern Levy County, Florida that has already led to several indictments, including W.S. "Sammy" Yearty, the dean of the county commission. A federal indictment shows that Mic ... More >>

When the U.S. Economy Collapses, I'll Watch Through Gold Binoculars From the Deck of My "Giga-yacht"

Images courtesy of www.4yacht.comGiga-what? Giga-yacht! It's for sporting men who feel crowded on their 180-foot "super-yacht" and whose claustrophobia still flares up on a 220-foot-plus "mega-yacht." That's a gigayacht pictured above. I had to shrink the graphic, but if you look  closely on th ... More >>

Morning Juice: Pranksters Cause Backup of One-Liners

With news like this, we need Horatio.Shoes, Statue Pranks Work of Criminal Mastermind? Yeah!An investigation is underway to find out who dumped thousands of shoes all over the Palmetto Expressway this morning. But with only a CSI Miami-style unproven hunch, I'm willing to say that it's the prankster ... More >>

Ain't Nothing Happy About these Holidays for Rep. Franklin Sands

The Weston Democrat and minority leader of the Florida House has had a hellish holiday season. A week ago, Sands opened Monday's edition of the Palm Beach Post to a story about how he allegedly used Democrats' willingness to give to the Florida Democratic Party as a basis for deciding who deserved ... More >>