Article
Courtesy of Miami New Times
By Gus
Garcia-Roberts
Published June 30, 2009
In
April, we brought you "Treasure Island", the story of big-time
spine surgeon and developer Charles C. Edwards being accused of defrauding
a North Bay Village condo building out of $233,000 that was supposed to go
towards insuring the place.
In three sentences: in 2004, Charles and son James Edwards were two-thirds
of the Grandview Palace's Board of Directors when the elder proclaimed to
the building Condominium Association that he found an insurance company
that would save the building thousands in premiums. What he didn't
disclose is that the company, Florida Mutual Assurance, was founded by
him that same day- and wasn't licensed to provide, you know,
insurance. Perhaps more incriminating, two founding members of the
corporation, a lawyer and an insurance agent, quit the day it was formed,
with the agent explicitly warning Edwards that issuing insurance without a
license "constituted a felony", according to a police report.
This
all wasn't discovered until May, 2008, and this March, State Attorney's
Office charged the company with organized fraud, grand theft in the first
degree, and issuing insurance without a license -- indeed, all felonies.
Which
is all well and good, but what about the players behind the company? Back
then, State's Attorney hinted that they might never be charged, and
Republican State Rep. Julio Robaina had lamented the precedent that might
set:
"If
you steal a car worth $233,000, you can bet you'll be charged with a
felony. [This] sends a message to the rest of the country, saying, 'If you
want to commit fraud, come to Miami-Dade County. The worst that will
happen is you have to pay back the money you stole.'"
With
the company's trial upcoming, it's official that the Edwardses will not be
charged. Florida Mutual Assurance will face financial sanctions if
convicted, but since it hasn't been active since 2005, it's unclear how it
will be forced to pay, says Aaron R. Cohen, a lawyer representing the
Condominium Association: "It would be a better use of the taxpayer's
money if they refused to prosecute all together rather than prosecute a
corporation that has no assets. It's basically a dissolved account. It's
just a waste of time and resources."
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