In November of last year, a jury found Rafael Andres guilty of the first-degree murder of Ivette Fariñas, a waitress who worked at Miami International Airport. He was also found guilty of first-degree arson for the fire he set in her home in his attempt to destroy the evidence of…
South Florida Criminal Attorneys Blog
Miami Resident Arrested in $100 million Venezuelan Money Laundering Scheme
Venezuela has recently been experiencing a shortage of all foreign currencies due to a substantial drop in oil prices, the country’s central source of US dollars. It has gone through an economic contraction of close to three percent and is fighting a very high rate of inflation which is currently…
Charges dropped in 14-year old Lakeland Girl’s Cyberbullying Suicide
Modern technology in its union with computers and the Internet is responsible for many changes in existing laws, both federal and local. A prime example of this is the crime of wire fraud which was previously defined as criminalities which were committed crossing state lines, mostly associated by telephone, telegraph,…
Broward County Resident Accepts 70 Month Prison Sentence for Identity Theft
With less than a week to go, many are looking forward to opening of the 2015 baseball season. And only ten days after that event begins the deadline for filing your tax return reaches its deadline. Spring always brings about the beginning of one and cutoff date of the other…
Florida Connection to Silk Road Case, Bitcoin, Money Laundering and More
In late January, a U.S. District Judge sentenced a Cape Coral, Florida man to four years in federal prison and the forfeiture of almost $1 million after he pleaded guilty to the charge of tax evasion. Robert Faiella accepted the plea which was the lesser of the allegations charged against…
Eight Arrested in Offshore Gambling Ring with Connection to Organized Crime
After an investigation that went on for over half a year, eight South Florida men were taken into custody as the result of a sting that covered territory along the East Coast in an offshore online sports gambling ring that was operated out of the suspect’s homes as well as…
South Florida Ex-Convict Faces Federal Weapons Charges
Michael Paul Watkins of Inverness had successfully escaped from custody previously on two separate occasions after being convicted for the crime of fondling and handling a minor under the age of sixteen years in Florida State Court. He was arrested in October 2011 on a charge of domestic battery. Details…
Miami Woman Sentenced to Life in Prison for Revenge Killing
When police responded to a 911 call made by an agitated North Miami woman whose husband was murdered while playing with the couple’s 20 month old son the previous month, they found the bullet riddled body of Ilam Nissim who had been shot numerous times by the 911 caller, Janepsy…
US District Court to Hear Convoluted Murder for Hire Case
Fred Topous Jr. is a registered sex offender who pleaded guilty in 1999 to the charge of assault with intent to penetrate a thirteen year old minor female who just happened to be his boss’s daughter. He can easily be labelled a career criminal as his records show that he’s…
Collateral Monetary Damage in South Florida from Home Depot Security Breach
These days it seems that with far too much frequency there is continually breaking news about another retailer with online outlets being victimized by a security breach. The latest of these high tech break-ins was successfully aimed at Home Depot and turned out to be executed by a low-tech method;…