Bernard Madoff

Miami's Most Extravagant Dishes: $1,000 Surf & Turf and More

​Want access to our Best Of picks from your smartphone? Download our free Best Of app for the iPhone or Android phone from the App Store or Google Play. Don't forget to check out the full Best of Miami® 2012 online at bestof.voiceplaces.com.There is no doubt at all that Miami is an in-your-face, ... More >>

Seven Signs Miami Is The Fakest City in America

Only in Miami could our inboxes be flooded with press releases like this Wednesday's police announcement: "Clandestine Dentist Arrested." Oh, thank God, you say. Then you think, what kind of a city has fake dentists? I mean, how hard can it be to graduate from dental school?But this is Miami, quite ... More >>

Fear and Loathing in Tampa: Your Gonzo Guide to the Republican National Convention

Jose Reyes to the Marlins: The Conflicting Emotions of A Miami-Residing Mets Fan

​I was in the stands at Shea Stadium in 2006 when Endy Chavez, God bless his tiny heart, made this heroic catch in the NLCS' Game 7 to seemingly seal the Mets' glorious destiny. That was the last time I've ever experienced joy. Three innings later, Carlos Beltran was frozen by an Adam Wainwright ... More >>

Nevin Shapiro and His Attorney Threatened New Times With World's Silliest Lawsuit

via Yahoo SportsNevin ShapiroNevin Shapiro and his Coral Gables attorney, Maria Elena Perez, have the national media eating out of their hands these days. Shapiro is trying to bring down UM's football program, and Perez -- who's not in jail -- has helped him by making TV appearances. But the pair wa ... More >>

Bernie Madoff's Boxer Shorts Sell for $200 at Miami Beach Auction

​The big auction of Bernie Madoff's old stuff went down this weekend at the Miami Beach Convention Center, and more than $400,000 was collected to pay back his victims. The big news though is that someone paid $200 for a lot of Madoff's old boxer shorts. Which seems like a really good deal and a s ... More >>

Now's Your Chance To Own A Very Tacky Piece Of Allen Stanford's Ponzi Empire

Wave goodbye to that $3 million desk, Allen.​You've got to give Allen Stanford credit for thinking big -- instead of sinking his $8 billion Ponzi scheme profits into the usual uber-rich guy stuff, he bought himself the entire Caribbean nation of Antigua, sponsored giant cricket tourneys (despite b ... More >>

Bernie Madoff's Liquor Cabinet is Going Up for Auction in Miami

​Convicted Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff wasn't a cheap man. Even though he was far from a booze enthusiast, apparently having a well-stocked and extensive stash of wine and fine liquor is just a byproduct of having way too much money (other people's, in this case) than one knows what to do with. Th ... More >>

Bob Norman, Good-Bye!

​My old buddy Bob Norman is shipping outta New Times Broward Palm Beach and heading for the TV news. Bob has been the franchise player at that paper for years -- ably assisted by the likes of a staff that has included stars like Sam Eifling, Ed Newton, Tony Ortega, Mike Mooney, Lisa Rab, Trevo ... More >>

Marguerite Martial Jean Busted for $3.4 Million Ponzi Scheme that Targeted Haitian-American Church Goers

​Given the high profile cases of Bernie Madoff, Scott Rothstein and Allen Stanford, the image of a Ponzi schemer is usually that of some rich white guy with a cigar hanging out of his mouth praying on already well-off investors, but not all schemers fit that bill. Marguerite Martial Jean, a 38-yea ... More >>

New York's Not So Finest

Pinko Dramedy

Nevin Shapiro: Miami's Caligula

The Freakonomics cottage industry multiplies

Versace Ushers in Fashion Week at Icon Brickell. Have You Bought Your $91,000 Chinchilla Coat Yet?

Michael MillerChinchilla so soft you could snort it for only $91,000​You might not have noticed, but the Magic City has a wee bit of a poverty crisis going on these days. Half the county is behind on its mortgage and Miami's homeless can't even get their hands on unwanted LeBron jerseys.So imagine ... More >>

Convicted NBA Fraudster Rumeal Robinson Joins South Florida's Blown Fortune Hall of Fame

That blindfolded chick holding the scales just made it rain justice on Rumeal Robinson. The former University of Michigan basketball hero and NBA journeyman-- whose addiction to strip clubs was first exposed by this blog-- has been convicted in Iowa federal court of fraud. The Aventura resident was ... More >>

Latin American dictators love South Florida

Frank Owen Sues Gerald Posner Over Plagiarism Charges in Miami Babylon

photo by Bill Cooke​Back in March, we were the first to detail local author Frank Owen's charges that Gerald Posner had plagiarized dozens of passages in his latest book, Miami Babylon, from Owen's 2003 book Clubland. The case opened the floodgates on what looks like Posner's career-long habit of ... More >>

Ponzi playboy Sean Healy didn't invest money he swindled; he blew it in a hurry

A Poor Man's Bernie Madoff Screws Haitian-Americans

Moron of the Week: Wannabe Prosecutor-Killer Travis Stubbs

Travis Stubbs, exponential dumbass.​This week, believe it or not, was a relatively intelligent one in South Florida. We had a Miami Gardens minister buying Rolls Royce Phantoms for drug dealers, and a Miami Heat player's penis made an unexpected cameo, but all in all, it was mostly quiet on ... More >>

Gather Around Your Morons of the Week

It's once again that time of the week-- when a bearded, wild-eyed Riptide climbs down from that mountaintop hoisting stone tablets bearing the names of the last seven day's most elite numbskulls. Without further ado, your morons of the week: 5. The city of Haikou It's being called the "Miami of Chin ... More >>

Miami-Dade con man Karl Thompson swindled an ex-cop and got caught

Super Bowl guide to sex, drugs, gambling, and living large in South Florida

Made Off Too: A Retired Aventura Cop Gets Conned and Fights Back

Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein bilked investors out of $1.2 billion, but at least he didn't Miami-Dade CorrectionsKarl Thompson stole $1.2 million from a retired police officer.​bamboozle a poor one-armed handyman like Karl Thompson did.The 40-year-old scammer defrauded friends and business associa ... More >>

Miami 2009: Seven signs the End Times are nigh

Miami Book Fair: Andy Borowitz

​"When I was in high school, I was editor of the paper, and we did an April Fool's issue that was all fake news. I look back at that and look at what I'm doing now, and I realize just how little growth there's been in the last 30 years."Andy Borowitz is discussing his career and being more than m ... More >>

Van Peebles, Borowitz, S.L. Price at the Book Fair

Lowenstein Family Owes Big Bucks

Miami-based Psystar takes on Apple

Miami Book Fair: Ruth Reichl

​Ruth Reichl comes to the Miami Book Fair International to plug a huge 1,000-plus recipe cookbook called Gourmet Today -- on the heels of the announcement that there would be no more Gourmet magazine tomorrow. That's sort of like Bernie Madoff going on a financial self-help book tour in the weeks ... More >>

A Christmas Carol: A very CGI Christmas

The 2009 Miami Book Fair offers a strange brew of talent

Moron of the Week: Self-Destructive Ponzi Baller Sean Healy

Photo via MySpace.com Never mind the fact hat he dresses like a club promoter. If your investment manager has a MySpace page, get a new investment manager.​Forget Flagler, Tuttle, and Brickell. We need to start naming streets and bridges after a historical figure whose legacy is honored eve ... More >>

President Obama fails to go after those responsible for the financial meltdown

Slot Machines at Our Airport?

via Iotea's flickrSometimes Miami-Dade County Hall reminds me of that guy who's always dreaming up wacky get-rich-quick schemes and shady money-making ideas ("Dude, I just bought that book from the guy who wears question-mark-print suits..." "If I hit up every sperm bank in the tri-county area once ... More >>

Madoff Gets 150 Years in Jail

Bernie Madoff, the West Palm Beach financial demon who ripped off thousands of investors, many in South Florida, has been sentenced to the maximum 150 years behind bars.  "I'm responsible for a great deal of suffering and pain, I understand that. I live in a tormented state now, knowing all of the ... More >>

Miami Scammer's Possible 400-Year Sentence Makes Madoff's Seem Light

via Taunton GazetteOkun and Bolani in happier timesBernie Madoff is facing 150 years in prison, but that's nothing compared to the 400-year sentence that could await former Miami businessman Edward Hugh Okun.Not much ink has been spilled locally about Okun, but we'll bring you up to speed. At s ... More >>

News Roundup

Local In Miami Beach, a police officer shot and killed Husien Shehada, suspecting he had a gun. Then the cop arrested his brother, but family and friends think the reasoning doesn't line up. [Herald] A class-action lawsuit filed in Miami asks that "phantom fees" be returned to Bernie Madoff's vict ... More >>

Cheap Eats on the Island?

Yes, it seems even Palm Beach can't escape the iron clutch of impending economic doom. Fortunes strip-mined by Bernie Madoff, trendy uber-boutiques slinking off Worth Avenue like mangy dogs, billionaires reduced to poverty-stricken multimillionaires. And now an affordable restaurant is heading for t ... More >>

The Fall of a Titan

A downtown Miami firm allegedly helped build an $8 billion Ponzi scheme. It could have been stopped.

Allen Stanford Will Punch You in the Mouth If You Ask About His Ponzi Scheme

In a state still reeling from Bernie Madoff and staggering toward 10 percent unemployment, it's tough to think of many adjectives less likely to endear you to the commoners than accused billionaire Ponzi schemer.via mediaimran's flickrStanford, at left, sponsored $20 million cricket matches in the g ... More >>

News Roundup

Local Donte' Stallworth surrendered to police. [CBS4] The Miami planning board approved the permit for the Marlins stadium. [SFBJ] Miami-Dade Transit has no money, so it's trying to skim a little off the top of stimulus money that belongs to municipalities. [MiamiToday] HSBC (a bank) just signed a ... More >>

New Poll: 9% of Southerners Find Bernie Madoff Favorable

This week poll magicians were out in full force collectively interrupting Americans' family dinners with long surveys. Both CBS and the Daily Kos have interesting polls out where we learn surprising things (Hillary Clinton has better approval ratings than Michelle Obama) and not so surprising things ... More >>

New in Town Might Just Be the Worst Movie of 2009

We're not sure exactly what happened when New in Town got pitched. We imagine some screenwriter hack was all like, "You know how in Miami the temperature is relatively warm? Right? Well, what if some lady from Miami had to move to the frozen tundra of Minnesota? Then she had all sorts of slapstick a ... More >>

Developer Tibor Hollo Helped Build Miami

An epic condo bust can't burst his bubble.

A People in Transition

The Miami Jewish Film Festival offers perspective on a changing culture.

Madoff's Man

South Florida multimillionaire Michael Bienes never cut ties with Bernie Madoff, even after the SEC shut him down.