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By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

John Zumwalt

John Zumwalt

The boss of one of Florida’s biggest government contractors has announced he’s stepping down. The news comes weeks after embarrassing disclosures about his personal involvement in a corporate pay to play scandal, and disclosures about possible corrupt payoffs overseas by company officials.

“After a decade of my executive leadership through the best of times and through difficult times it is now time to plan an orderly transition to a new CEO,” PBS&J chief executive John Zumwalt, 58, said in a prepared statement last week. Zumwalt will continue as chairman of PBS&J’s board of directors.

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Sun Village developer Frederick Elliott

Sun Village developer Frederick Elliott

By Dan Christensen, BrowardBulldog.org

Federal prosecutors and FBI agents in South Florida are investigating allegations of yet another massive investment fraud in which thousands of investors across the U.S. and Canada are said to have lost $170 million, Broward Bulldog has learned.

The investigation began last month after a 50-page preliminary report about the “Ponzi-style” scam was sent to a Miami federal judge by a court-appointed special master. The report called for sweeping criminal probes by U.S. and Canadian law enforcement.

“The unassailable fact (is) that thousands of investors/owners, and by extension their families in the U.S. and Canada, as well as other countries, have been financially destroyed,” says the report by Miami lawyer Thomas Scott, a former federal judge and U.S. Attorney.

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Jamie Solow

Jamie Solow

UPDATE: At 2 p.m. today, Jan. 22, U.S. District Judge Middlebrooks denied ex-stockbroker Jamie Solow’s request that he stay his order sending Solow to jail on Monday. The judge did, however, delay Solow’s surrender date one week to allow Solow time to appeal. Solow’s new surrender date is Feb. 1. 

 

By Dan Christensen, browardbulldog.org

A globetrotting former stock broker who’s been living a life of luxury in Fort Lauderdale since a jury found that he defrauded hundreds of small investors who bought his risky, mortgage-backed securities has been ordered to prison indefinitely.

The unusual federal civil contempt order says Jamie Solow, 48, orchestrated a complex scheme to stash millions of dollars offshore and out of the reach of his victims and the government.

A judge last year ordered Solow to pay nearly $6 million in ill-gotten gains and civil penalties after a nine week civil trial.

The money trail that regulators have followed to collect stretches across the world – from a bank in the tiny South Pacific nation of The Cook Islands where Solow’s wife, Gina, has a $5.2 million certificate of deposit, to Swiss safe deposit boxes stuffed with cash and jewelry.

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By Dan Christensen, browardbulldog.org

Michael Satz

Michael Satz

Howard Finkelstein

Howard Finkelstein

In what’s shaping up as an extraordinary clash of legal titans, Broward Public Defender Howard Finkelstein has accused Broward State Attorney Michael Satz of routinely violating defendants’ rights and applying a double standard of justice in the county.

For years, the state attorney has given favorable treatment to police officers and “influential or wealthy” citizens facing prosecution, Finkelstein alleged in a six-page letter sent to Satz on Tuesday. The letter asks Satz to provide better training for prosecutors and to establish new office procedures.

“It is imperative that the Broward State Attorney’s Office treat all persons it considers for criminal prosecution equally. The two systems of justice in Broward County must end,” said Finkelstein, an assistant public defender in Broward since the 1980s.

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Gabrielle Shaink Trudeau

Gabrielle Shaink Trudeau

By Dan Christensen, browardbulldog.org

A 78-year-old Hallandale Beach grandmother ticketed for driving on a suspended driver’s license spent 15 days in jail before authorities announced her license wasn’t suspended and an outraged judge set her free.

County Court Judge Lee J. Seidman ordered Gabrielle Shaink Trudeau’s release in December at her arraignment.

“She’s handcuffed like Houdini, for the record. She’s got chains around her waist, and she’s got handcuffs in front around her hands as if she was some kind of a violent criminal,” said Seidman, according to a transcript.  “I want her released. I think she’s suffered enough at our system’s mistakes.”

Safeguards built into Broward’s judicial system are designed to prevent what happened to Shaink Trudeau. But the prolonged jailing of an elderly woman with no previous criminal record over a traffic ticket has left red-faced authorities admitting they botched her case.