U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

Fort Lauderdale Fraudsters Scammed Investors with Fake Colombian Disney World, SEC Says

E-Monee.com Inc - if you were writing a movie script and needed to cook up the name of a shady online outfit, that's probably a good candidate. Not surprisingly, the real life E-Monee.com is being charged with fraud by the feds. The two heads of the Fort Lauderdale company talked big about lucrative ... 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 >>

Orlando Man Charged in Astrology-Based Ponzi Scheme; Lost $400k to Bad Gravity Predictions

Gurudeo "Buddy" Persaud is accused of organizing an investment scheme with a fraud that was... cosmic.The Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday charged Persaud with stealing more than $1 million from investors between 2007 and the beginning of 2010: He promised them returns of 6 to 18 perc ... More >>

Scott Rothstein Calls Out Frank Preve, Banyon Investments in New Deposition, Lawyer Says

Update, 4:25 p.m.: The post has been changed to reflect that the line of questioning was specifically about Preve and did not involve Levin.Last month, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against George Levin and Frank Preve, who they say used their firm, Banyon Investments, to shov ... More >>

Frank Preve Emailed Scott Rothstein: "I Can't Show Anyone That I Am a Complete Idiot"

This is one of those times when the documents speak for themselves; I could rewrite and paraphrase the claims made by the Securities and Exchange Commission, but that wouldn't be better for either of us.The short version of the story: The SEC says Fort Lauderdale-based hedge fund managers Georg ... More >>

George Levin, Frank Preve Hit With SEC Charges in Scott Rothstein Ponzi Scheme

The Securities and Exchange Commission announced today that it has filed a complaint against two of the men who provided investors for Scott Rothstein's Ponzi scheme.The SEC says George Levin and Frank Preve helped Rothstein raise more than $157 million in his billion-dollar scheme by getting invest ... More >>

Ninety-Seven F-Bombs From Ozzie Guillen Won't Erase That Awful Stadium Deal

Showtime released a 30-minute preview on Saturday to its show The Franchise: A Season With the Miami Marlins, which will chronicle the travails of baseball's version of a court jester. There's a scene near the start of the show where loudmouth manager Ozzie Guillen is addressing his new players for ... More >>

Broward Investment Manager Allegedly Sold $11 Million Worth of Imaginary Technology Stock

bnet.comJust like Jim Cramer doesn't have access to stock from Iron Man, John Mattera didn't have access to multiple things he was allegedly selling.​As they say in South Florida: another day, another alleged multimillion-dollar scam.John Mattera, 50, was arrested at his Fort Lauderdale home yeste ... More >>

Subway Beats McDonald's for Title of Largest Fast-Food Chain

​Subway is beating the crap out of McDonald's to win the title of largest fast-food restaurant chain. According to the Wall Street Journal, at the end of 2010, Subway had 33,749 restaurants worldwide, compared to 32,737 for McDonald's. The number of McDonald's stores was disclosed in an ... More >>

Nevin Shapiro Is the Caligula of South Florida's Ponzi Empire

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 >>

Office Depot on Deathwatch

FlickrIf Office Depot goes out of business, where will these two people in Bizmarck, North Dakota, go for office supplies?​Our depressed local economy really can't afford for another big business to hit the skids, but that's what it's looking like for Office Depot, based in Boca Raton. We've been ... More >>

Stanford Employees in Fort Lauderdale Accused of Shredding Evidence of Massive Fraud

FlickrDid Allen Stanford's local employees try to cover up his crime?​The first criminal trial in the Stanford Financial Group fraud is under way, and it ain't pretty for the local branch. In opening remarks of a trial that began Monday in Miami, prosecutors told the jury that Thomas Raffanello an ... More >>

Morning Juice: Stage Fright at Sun Life; Broward Commissioners Give Voters No Choice on Courthouse

​As the weather slowly warms for the big game, let's see what the local headlines have to say:Sun Life Stadium had a mighty scare last night when a stage collapsed during a Super Bowl rehearsal, injuring four people. Not exactly the publicity that the folks at Sun Life had in mind when they ponied ... More >>

Cardiologist and Republican Fundraiser Bounced From State College Board

Zachariah​Late last week, Gov. Charlie Crist removed Holy Cross cardiologist Zachariah P. Zachariah from the powerful Board of Governors overseeing Florida universities. It's another occasion for gossip in the state's Republican Party. Was Crist wary of insider trader allegations made by the Secur ... More >>

President Obama Fails to Go After Those Responsible for Financial Meltdown

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

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

Are The Feds Looking Into The L.I.E.?

  Doesn't this woman look like she's been taken by surprise? Or perhaps that a secret has just been found out? Actually, the woman in the photo, Stacy Schultz, has been flying under the radar just fine. Schultz is the "sole proprietor" of a life settlement company called LIfe I ... More >>

Broward County’s first man admits deep ties to Mutual Benefits

Russ Klenet Was Owned By Joel Steinger

We have the latest on lobbyist Russ Klenet, his wife Broward County Mayor Stacy Ritter, his former boss Joel Steinger, and the Mutual Benefits fraud saga.        Sun-SentinelThis brand-spanking new article is based largely on a 2007 deposition taken of Klenet during S ... More >>

Sunday Reading: The Wayne Huizenga Story

I just happened on this classic written by Steve Almond in 1994 about South Florida's hard-driven, complicated, and sometimes brutal mogul.  Uh, it jumps.   Citizen Wayne - The Unauthorized Biography A college dropout and the product of a broken home, H. Wayne Huizenga rose ... More >>

Boca-Based Office Depot: More Screwed Up Than Dunder Mifflin?

Office supplies giant Office Depot, based in Boca Raton, is the latest major American corporation to get itself in trouble with federal regulators. The company, which claims $14.8 billion in annual sales, is being investigated for improper contact with business analysts. Specifically, representative ... 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 >>

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 >>

Palm Beach Post Embarrasses Self, Re-Endorses Corrupt Goldsmith

In a rather subversive answer to my recent blog post that exposed Palm Beach mayoral candidate C. Gerald "Gerry" Goldsmith's corrupt history, the Palm Beach Post re-endorsed Goldsmith, saying he's "still the choice." The paper, in one of the most pathetic excuses for journalism the Pulp h ... More >>

Mutual Benefits used dirty money to pay its legal defense

Palm Beach Mayoral Candidate Has Corrupt Past In Bahamas

Even by Florida's loose ethical standards, Palm Beach mayoral contender C. Gerald Goldsmith has a corrupt past that should make his candidacy a joke. Goldsmith, who served on the Palm Beach town council back in the mid-1990s, survived the Feb. 3 election ... More >>

GlobeTel Sanswire Will Protect America With Its Luck Dragon

Falcor may soon be the last line of defense in the War Against TerrorGlobeTel is a Pembroke Pines company that first appeared on the local radar a few years ago, when it was promising to fill South Florida airspace with sci-fi machines called "stratellites" -- a clunky combination of a light airship ... More >>

Mutual Benefits may have collapsed, but the fallout for South Florida politicians is still coming.

Russ Klenet and Stacy Ritter Mutually Benefited From Fraud

Scott Wyman writes this morning of a lawsuit filed against lobbyist Russ Klenet, the husband of Broward Mayor Stacy Ritter, by a former vice president of viatical company Mutual Benefits Corp. You might remember the name of the company -- it is, after all, accused of ripping off investors ... More >>

Madoff's Man

Fort Lauderdale multimillionaire Michael Bienes never cut ties with Bernie Madoff — even after the SEC shut him down.

Bienes, Avellino, Madoff and The Church

Bienes Knighted By Catholic Church Well, the Sun-Sentinel, apparently in a panic over the New York Times beating it to the story, finally reported on the connection between Fort Lauderdale philanthropist Michael Bienes and his partner, Frank Avellino, to Bernie Madoff, the $50 billion Po ... More >>

Fort Lauderdale Philanthropist Tied To Epic Swindler Madoff -- UPDATED

Michael Bienes doesn't make a lot of news and hasn't been involved much in local politics, but if you look around you'll see the tall and seemingly kindly Fort Lauderdale multi-millionaire's name all over the place. At Holy Cross Hospital, there's the Michael and Diann ... More >>

A Stock Market Carol

Founder of Benihana Japanese Steakhouse Dead at 69

Letters for March 1-7, 2007

Beam Me Up

A Pembroke Pines company wants to flood the country with invisible beams from high-flying blimps. Want to invest?

Mr. Big Shot

The charismatic lawyer and power broker took one last lap in a New River mansion during his run from the law

Tailpipe

Energizer Con Man

Sex Talk

The Etiquette of Whoring

Here's Lookin' at You

A Delray company implanting people with microchips looks to the bright Orwellian future

Profile of a Predator

Tennis pro Paul Edwards hustles both on and off the court

Pulp Nonfiction, Act 3

The finale of this flick has it all: deceit, greed, and marquee names

Pulp Nonfiction, Act 2

A good, upstanding American family gets mixed up with the mob

The Grift of Gab

Stephen Tashman made a small fortune launching Telecard Dispensing Corporation. If only his investors had been so lucky.

From Schlubs to Sharks

Boiler Room

Her Word Is Not Her Bond

Former Broward County financial adviser Teressa Cawley had a bright career… until the SEC passed judgment on her

Other People's Money

The new king of South Florida philanthropists, Richard Bronson, built his empire on the shady side of Wall Street