11th Circuit Court

Elite FBI team rescues prosecutor’s dad from kidnappers in Atlanta

Updated: The father of a North Carolina prosecutor was abducted from his Wake Forest home last week in retaliation for her work on a prison inmate’s case, authorities say. Frank Arthur Janssen, 63, was rescued Wednesday night in Atlanta by an elite FBI team after being held for five days.…

Apr 10, 2014 4:50 PM CDT

Amidst ‘epidemic’ of tax-refund claims using stolen IDs, feds charge 25 in $36M fraud

Amidst what a top federal prosecutor calls an epidemic of fraudulent filings for federal income tax refunds under stolen identities, a strike force in South Florida has charged 25 individuals in 19 cases involving $36 million in fraud. The defendants include a jail guard accused of stealing the identities of…

Apr 3, 2014 8:04 PM CDT

Longtime lawyer gets 10 years for his role in $1B Mutual Benefits investment scam

A longtime South Florida lawyer was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for his role in a $1 billion insurance investment scam. Anthony M. Livoti Jr. could have gotten as much as 80 years, and the prosecution in the Mutual Benefits Corp. case sought at least 30 years.…

Apr 1, 2014 6:45 PM CDT

Facial recognition database leads feds to fugitive 37 years after prison escape

A man who escaped from federal prison in Kansas in 1977 while serving a 23-year sentence for a premeditated murder and aggravated assault committed while he was a U.S. Army private was arrested in Florida on Thursday. James Robert Jones was tracked down, nearly 37 years later, after the Army…

Mar 14, 2014 4:45 PM CDT

Former law firm name partner will plead guilty in election-law case, his attorney says

A plea of not guilty to a federal election-law violation was entered Thursday by a former name partner of the now-shuttered South Florida law firm headed by convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein. However, Russell Adler is already scheduled to plead guilty early next month in the election-law case, the Sun…

Mar 13, 2014 6:00 PM CDT

Name partner of shuttered Fla. law firm faces criminal case, wants to ‘get on with his life’

A name partner of the shuttered Florida law firm led by imprisoned swindler Scott Rothstein has been criminally charged with conspiracy to violate federal election laws. Russell Adler was charged in a criminal information filed by federal prosecutors in Fort Lauderdale, which usually signifies that the defendant is cooperating with…

Mar 7, 2014 7:55 PM CST

Another lawyer takes plea in connection to $1.2B fraud by now-disbarred attorney Scott Rothstein

Another South Florida lawyer has taken a plea in connection with the massive $1.2 billion fraud by now-disbarred attorney Scott Rothstein. Douglas Bates, 55, pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy Thursday in federal court in West Palm Beach, the Sun Sentinel reports. Federal prosecutors have said that he helped the…

Feb 20, 2014 9:45 PM CST

ABA urges SCOTUS review in case of capital defendant whose lawyer missed habeas deadline

The American Bar Association has filed an amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to grant cert in the case of a Florida death-row inmate whose lawyer failed to file habeas petition within the one-year deadline. The ABA is urging review in the case of Paul Howell, convicted of making…

Feb 6, 2014 12:00 PM CST

Ex-lawyer disbarred for $1B scheme testifies in shackles for former colleague facing wire fraud case

A once-prominent Florida lawyer—now disbarred and serving a 50-year prison term while under the federal witness protection program—Scott Rothstein testified Wednesday in handcuffs and leg irons at the wire fraud conspiracy trial of an attorney who worked at his Fort Lauderdale law firm before it imploded over his $1 billion-plus…

Feb 5, 2014 8:20 PM CST

Will bank suits against Target in $1B-plus customer data breach help spur security enhancements?

It isn’t just individuals who are taking legal action over a massive data breach in November and December that reportedly involved at least 40 million and perhaps as many as 110 million Target Corp. customer accounts. Contending that banks may have lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of Target’s…

Feb 3, 2014 11:20 PM CST

Teen gets 3 years in prison for stealing celebrities’ identities

A 19-year-old recently fired from a Florida call center and living at home with his mother stole $71,000 from accounts belonging to Kim Kardashian’s mother, as well as the identities of Kardashian and then-FBI director Robert Mueller. Authorities said Luis Flores Jr. also tried to access bank accounts belonging to…

Jan 31, 2014 11:29 PM CST

Acquitted on most counts, attorney nonetheless faces hefty sentence in $1B insurance fraud scheme

After eight days of deliberation, a federal jury in Miami on Wednesday acquitted a South Florida lawyer of 20 counts that he faced in a $1 billion insurance fraud case. However, Anthony Livoti Jr. still likely faces a hefty sentence for money laundering, conspiring to commit fraud and two other…

Dec 5, 2013 9:00 PM CST

Federal judge: Lawyer must pay costs of producing imprisoned ex-attorney Rothstein at her trial

Disbarred attorney Scott Rothstein, who is serving a 50-year prison term for his role in a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, must testify as a defense witness at the January trial of one of the lawyers who formerly worked for his South Florida law firm, a federal judge has ruled. However,…

Nov 25, 2013 9:50 PM CST

Social media maven sues TV network, says it stole 6.78M Facebook ‘likes’ from her page on ‘The Game’

A social media maven credited with getting The Game back on cable television and helping the program about the lives of football players premiere in front of 7.7 million viewers on Black Entertainment Television in January 2011 has added an unusual claim to a federal lawsuit she filed in Florida.…

Nov 15, 2013 6:05 PM CST

Kim Rothstein, wife of ex-lawyer jailed in $1.2B swindle, gets 18 months for hiding $1M in jewelry

The wife of a disgraced Florida attorney has been sentenced to 18 months for her own role in scheme related to the $1.2 billion swindle for which the now-disbarred lawyer is serving a 50-year federal prison term. Kim Rothstein, 39, got 18 months Tuesday from a federal judge in Miami…

Nov 12, 2013 8:04 PM CST