Orlando Criminal Defense Law Blog

At least 700 people in Florida were invested in real estate acquired by the Woodbridge Group of Companies until its financial collapse. The aftermath of the company's bankruptcy filing revealed a Ponzi scheme that cost investors $1.3 billion. The company's former CEO along with two senior executives have been arrested on federal charges of wire and mail fraud and money laundering.

Their promises of returns as high as 10% lured mostly retirees into investing money in luxury real estate purchased by the company. Woodbridge Group bought properties in wealthy locations like Beverly Hills and Aspen. By 2017, the executives had allegedly run out of money to pay original investors when new investors stopped buying in. The Securities and Exchange Commission in Miami then launched an investigation. The civil suit brought by the SEC produced a settlement requiring payment of $1 billion to compensate fraud victims.

Florida fans of "Desperate Housewives" heard many apologies from actress Felicity Huffman, former star of the series, after she entered guilty pleas in the college admission scandal. She accepted responsibility for conspiracy to commit mail fraud and honest services mail fraud and provided a public statement. Huffman expressed shame for her choice to pay a bribe to improve her daughter's SAT score. She apologized specifically to honest parents who sacrifice to help their hard-working children enter college.

Huffman was charged with criminal activity after an FBI investigation identified a web of affluent and sometimes famous parents who had conspired with a man to get their children into colleges for a price. Huffman paid the ringleader $15,000 via a so-called donation to his charity organization. For that price, he arranged for an SAT proctor to correct answers on the test taken by Huffman's daughter. This increased the score by 400 points. Huffman insists that her daughter did not know about it.

Police in Florida have reported that a large cache of weapons, illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia were discovered during the search of a Gifford home on March 29. A 38-year-old man has been taken into custody in connection with the seized items and is being held without bond at the Indian River County Jail. A Indian River County Sheriff's Office representative said that the investigation into the man's alleged activities began after members of the office's Special Investigations Unit made two undercover narcotics purchases from him.

According to media accounts, IRCSO deputies were assisted in the operation by federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. During the search of the 44th Street residence, the agents and deputies are said to have discovered seven rifles and eight handguns. Two of the rifles had allegedly been modified for fully automatic use and another had been fitted with a sniper scope. Bump stocks that are used to enable fully automatic fire were also allegedly discovered.

On March 27, a 51-year-old Florida man was arrested on suspicion of murder after undergoing a background and fingerprint check while applying for a job. The incident took place in Delray Beach.

According to NBC News, the defendant applied for a job at a fire and water cleanup company in December. As part of the application process, he was required to submit fingerprints and undergo a background check. However, in January, a national database flagged the fingerprints after they matched evidence from a murder that had been uploaded by detectives decades earlier. As a result of the match, agents from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement placed him under surveillance and managed to obtain some of his DNA for testing. It ended up matching DNA gathered from the crime scene.