South Florida Men Sentenced in $15 Million

SOUTH FLORIDA MEN SENTENCED IN $15 MILLION

CHECK CASHING STORE FRAUD

~Criminal charges include racketeering, grand theft, workers’ compensation fraud, money laundering and others~

TALLAHASSEE, FL - Attorney General Bill McCollum today announced five South Florida men pleaded guilty and were sentenced for their participation in a workers’ compensation premium fraud scheme which utilized shell companies to funnel more than 15 million dollars of construction industry payroll through a check cashing store in Pompano Beach for the purpose of avoiding paying workers’ compensation insurance premiums. The men pled guilty to charges of racketeering, conspiracy to commit racketeering, workers’ compensation fraud, grand theft, uttering forged instruments, money laundering and structuring charges. They were prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution.

Mohammad Salameh, 50, Amjad Abuzahra, 39, Francisco Nunes, 42, all of Boca Raton and Zeid Daas, 40, of Deerfield Beach, and Edigar Neves, 49, of Pompano Beach, pleaded guilty to charges of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering, both first-degree felonies; workers’ compensation fraud, grand theft, both second and third degree felonies; uttering a forged instrument, third-degree felony; money laundering and structuring transaction, both first-degree felonies. The sentence was handed down by Circuit Judge Michael Gates of the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit in Broward County.

The men were sentenced as follows: Mohammad Salameh, ten years probation, special condition of payment of $138,556.63 restitution to the victims; Amjad Abuzahra,, two years community control followed by eight years probation, special condition of 30 days county jail; Francisco Nunes, five years probation, special condition of 300 days county jail; Zeid Daas, eight years probation; and Edigar Neves, three years and three months state prison.

Detectives with the Florida Department of Financial Services, Division of Insurance Fraud, the Broward Sheriff’s Office, and the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office discovered that between November 2003 and February 2006, the defendants engaged in a scheme to defraud various workers’ compensation insurance companies of millions of dollars in insurance premiums. The defendants set up “shell” companies and obtained minimal workers’ compensation insurance policies, through which they facilitated the movement of millions of dollars of construction industry payroll, none of which was assessed workers’ compensation insurance premiums.

For a fee, which was charged at the check cashing store in addition to the normal check cashing fee, dozens of uninsured construction companies were offered the use of the shell company name and certificate of insurance of which 245 were issued, to perform construction work for hundreds of contractors throughout the State of Florida. The fee was set aside at the check cashing store to be collected by the defendants who set up the shell companies. The owners and operators of the check cashing store covered up the scheme by completing and submitting millions of dollars of fraudulent Currency Transaction Reports.

The victims who were named in the criminal case will be paid full restitution in the amount of $138,556.63. Another codefendant in this case is Marco Delgado, 29, of Boca Raton, who has previously pled guilty to similar charges and is awaiting sentencing.

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