Edmundo Velasquez is the name of the 49-year-old man whose plane crashed Sunday in the Everglades of West Broward. A resident of Oviedo, Velasquez’s plane was found partially submerged, roughly 200 feet north of I-75. Here’s the news release from Broward Sheriff’s Office.And here’s a link to the 911 call…
After you pay $57 million to get access to funds awarded in a phony court judgment, like Ed Morse did, you’re liable to worry about whether you can round up the money to pay for a traditional Thanksgiving dinner — you know, with the caviar, the Kobe steak, and the…
That’s a video presentation by Susyn Stecchi, a former Fort Lauderdale employee who in 1990 had the idea to turn the FEC railroad crossing at Riverwalk into a gigantic gator mouth. But according to the comments she attached to this video, the technology for this zany idea wasn’t available –…
I’ve heard rumors for some time that fallen lawyer, political player, and Scott Rothstein put an erotic dancer up in a suite at the Ritz-Carlton on Fort Lauderdale Beach. Now a source is going on the record with it. John Ciriello, an antiques dealer living in Pompano Beach, said he learned that Rothstein was keeping a…
Your daily dose of news from around Palm Beach and Broward:The FBI’s due to hold a news conference this morning to ask for public assistance in agents’ ongoing investigation of Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein. [Miami Herald]Curious about how Rothstein tricked Ed Morse into doling out $57 million? Brittany Wallman…
Robert Pedraza is a 24-year-old self-taught programmer with a thin frame, spiky dark hair, gleaming braces, and squinty eyes. His brother Rudy is a year older and a quarter-foot taller. He counters the computer-nerd image with a half-buttoned dress shirt and an intense stare. Last year, the two South Florida…
So I see this Daily Business Review story about the civil complaint filed by federal prosecutors seeking forfeiture of $17.8 million in property allegedly acquired by Scott Rothstein with Ponzi scheme money. The story by Jordana Mishory reports that the judge assigned to the case is U.S. District Judge William Zloch. Someone reminds…
This weekend, Hollywood Beach will swarm with impossibly ripped humans, all here for the NPC National Bodybuilding, Figure & Bikini Championships, which is making its annual appearance at South Florida’s Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa. For rubberneckers who can’t fathom how a person can get that muscular, the answer’s in…
This is footage from Saturday’s fight between South Florida’s own Glen Johnson (in gold) and “Bad” Chad Dawson. For most of the fight, Dawson, age 27 and undefeated, floated around Johnson, who will turn 41 in January. Johnson never made strong contact with Dawson and in the end looked worn…
A waiter called me with some stories about Scott Rothstein’s headquarters in his Gotham act, a little place called Bova Prime. And it was funny hearing the waiter’s story. This guy had such similar thoughts about Rothstein and the restaurant on Las Olas that held its grand opening on January 13 with…
For some old-timers in Riviera Beach, the start of any date out with your woman begins with sea turtle eggs. You poach them, sprinkle salt on their papery skin, and then eat the aphrodisiacs in one bite. Back when I first wrote about that nasty habit back in 2002, cops…
An article in today’s Miami Herald about the method Scott Rothstein used to bilk his pal Ed Morse out of millions sounds like it came straight out of some Nigerian scammer’s playbook. 419 fraud, also known as “advance fee” fraud, requires that victims wire money in advance to obtain a…
This year, I attended the LaidOffCamp event in Miami. A truly tech event, it was started in a pretty ad-hoc way through social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook. It’s since grown into a truly worldwide event in which IT people of all shapes and skills come together to network,…
Shortly after Marc Goldstone began his new job as general counsel of Broward Health in November of last year, he found that the public hospital district — which is among the nation’s largest — had been violating a range of federal laws and court orders, some of which jeopardized the…
Despite some public relations issues in the past, I think Ricky Williams is a pretty kickass guy. And no matter what you think of him, yesterday he did a kickass thing:Ricky took fellow Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown, some Dolphins cheerleaders, and 20 local wounded military veterans, and went to…
Boynton Beach Police are hoping this newly released video of a Britney Spears look-alike purse snatcher and her accomplice help nab the pair. Shortly after this scene, the young woman in the foreground exercises her sticky fingers, boldly grabbing the Kate Spade purse belonging to a 79-year-old woman who was…
This one is a bit of a game changer.It seems Scott Rothstein wasn’t just ripping off investors in a Ponzi scheme; he was also swindling friends in his work as a lawyer. Or at least one friend, wealthy car dealer Ted Morse, and Morse’s parents, Ed and Carol. We knew…
A glance at what’s in the news this Wednesday.A source told the Herald that Rothstein cheated his friend Ed Morse by faking a victorious lawsuit, then inventing a pretext through which Morse had to wire more than twice the amount of the judgment in order to get the funds out…
Attorneys Jeffrey Sonn and John Genovese filed a petition to force the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler firm into involuntary bankruptcy. A hearing has been scheduled for tomorrow. The largest investor in the motion is the aforementioned socialite Bonnie Barnett, who plunked a half million dollars into the scheme and whose son,…
Margarito Andres, a 22-year-old from Boynton Beach, is being sought by police after his 13-year-old stepsister reported Andres had been sexually assaulting her since she was 10 years old. In the probable cause affidavit, the victim told police that she’d been left home alone with Andres on Thursday and that…
