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Scott Rothstein

Scott Rothstein

By Dan Christensen, browardbulldog.org

 
Jailed ex-lawyer Scott Rothstein arranged a $6 million loan at a high rate of interest last spring to a subsidiary of The Las Olas Company, the struggling owner of Fort Lauderdale’s Riverside Hotel, county land records show.

Las Olas Company president and chairman Irving Bowen mortgaged the venerable hotel to obtain the short-term loan. Three months later, he was fired by the company’s board of directors.

Barbara Wells, heiress to a large Broward family fortune that includes The Las Olas Company, sued Bowen in August for allegedly squandering “tens of millions of dollars” of her corporate and trust fund money. She claimed Bowen used her riches to live the high life, while “running the company into the ground.”

Without naming Rothstein, the lawsuit cites the one-year, $6 million loan as an example of Bowen’s alleged mismanagement. It says Bowen agreed to an initial interest rate of 14 percent, and a rise to 18 percent after six months “even though another loan for the same amount at a much lower interest rate was available to the company.”

Bowen declined to discuss the lawsuit, the mortgage loan or say why he went to a law firm and not a bank to borrow $6 million for The Las Olas Company.

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Josephus Eggelletion

Josephus Eggelletion

By Dan Christensen, browardbulldog.org

Suspended Broward County Commissioner Josephus Eggelletion has agreed to plead guilty to a new federal information filed Tuesday that charges him with conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to a trio of sources.

Federal court records show that in exchange for Eggelletion’s plea, prosecutors have agreed to cap the amount of prison time he will do at five years. He can also be fined up to $250,000.

The maximum sentence for conspiracy to commit money laundering is 20 years.

“Mr. Eggelletion is fully apologetic for his actions and intends to rectify, to the extent he can, his conduct and has communicated that interest to the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” said defense attorney Benedict Kuehne, who declined further comment.

Eggelletion’s other attorneys include former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey of Miami and Pompano Beach’s Johnny L. McCray Jr.

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Barbara Wells

Barbara Wells

Irving Bowen

Irving Bowen

 By Dan Christensen, browardbulldog.org

The heiress to a Broward family fortune that includes Fort Lauderdale’s landmark Riverside Hotel and much of chic Las Olas Boulevard’s priciest real estate is suing her once trusted right hand man saying he betrayed her.

Barbara S. Wells, whose grandfather started The Las Olas Company in 1936, alleges ex-company president Irving Bowen used her riches “to enjoy the trappings of wealth and power” while squandering tens of millions of dollars and “running the company into the ground.”

Two non-family sources familiar with the dispute said Wells’ total losses are believed to exceed $100 million.

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Doug Evans

Doug Evans

By Jonathon King, browardbulldog.org

His right eye is swollen and sightless, the victim of diabetes, blinded by age and bursting blood vessels. But behind its brown glaze are the memories of one man’s accounting of the dead. So many dead.

“I worked more homicides than I can count,” says retired Detective Doug Evans, sitting at the kitchen table in his small northwest Fort Lauderdale home. “Some we solved. Others, no. But I remember them. It takes a toll.”

It is perhaps the burden of anyone who spent a career chasing killers, especially a homicide detective who dedicated so many of his 20 years on the Fort Lauderdale police department trying to rid his own neighborhoods of pure evil.

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Photo by Melanie Bell

Photo by Melanie Bell

By Dan Christensen, browardbulldog.org

When Broward Circuit Judge Victor Tobin was elected chief judge two years ago he vowed to heal a deeply divided courthouse and restore public faith in Broward’s judiciary.

But Tobin’s recent decision to transfer two rival veteran judges to divisions they did not request, and have told supporters they do not want, is fueling fresh resentment and reopening old wounds at the courthouse.