Watchlords

Attorney Confirms Some Stolen Rothstein Money Went To Business Partner

By Bob Norman
Thu., Nov. 19 2009 @ 11:01AM


Scott Rothstein's breakout month was October.






]Rothstein with Ovi Levy

During that month, the Ponzi scheming lawyer raised $232 million in October only to wired it all out of TD Bank accounts into a dizzying maze of businesses, says Fort Lauderdale attorney William Scherer, who is representing clients claiming losses totaling about $100 million in the scheme.

There are numerous rumors about who may have been on the receiving end of Rothstein's stolen fortune, but Scherer confirmed only one recipient so far: Ovadia "Ovi" Levy, Rothstein's good friend and partner in the Renato watch company.
I left a message with Levy, who refused comment when I called him two weeks ago, today. Sources say Levy, who joined Rothstein last year in supporting John McCain to the tune of about $15,000, also allegedly had invested millions in Rothstein's scheme. Scherer declined to say how much Rothstein wired to Levy before he fled to Morocco.
Levy is the son of mulitmillionaire hotelier Shimon Levy, whose holdings include the Sea Club Resort on Fort Lauderdale beach. Shimon Levy has had known ties to major Israeli organized crime figures in the past, according to published reports. He once spent a year in Israeli prison himself for abetting two Israeli organized crime figures. In May 1997, Levy's partner in the Sea Club Resort in Fort Lauderdale,

Zvika Yuz, was shot in the face as he parked his car at the hotel. Yuz, who was himself involved in a huge Ponzi scheme, died a few days later. The suspect, who was wearing a fake beard and carrying a doll, was never caught. Here's a passage from a Miami Herald story published at the time of Yuz's death:





Ramada Sea Club (above)

“Shimon Levy, 50, a partner with Yuz at the Ramada Sea Club, said Yuz never mentioned that he was having a problem with anyone.
"I knew him for three years very well," Levy said. "And I don't see any reason for something like this. He's not a guy that deals with illegal stuff. He's a very straight guy. He's a good husband. He's a good father."

But Yuz, an Israeli native who lived in Miami, played a significant role in what authorities have described as one of the largest fraud schemes in Florida history.He was one of about 20 money men who in the late 1980s and early '90s recruited investors for the now defunct Premium Sales of Aventura. Federal authorities indicted 36 company employees last year alleging the company was a front to bilk 1,800 investors of $300 million. Yuz was not among those indicted.

Fort Lauderdale Police Detective Jack King has said there is no evidence linking the shooting to Premium, but investigators are exploring the possibility. Yuz's testimony did not appear critical to the case. Robbery did not appear to be the motive for his slaying, King said.
Levy said the killing must have been motivated by something that happened before he met Yuz.
"I think it's a past thing, either Premium or something from the past," he said It goes deeper. This from a Herald follow-up (the Sun-Sentinel, incidentally, had nothing on this angle):


A co-owner and Yuz's partner in the Ramada Sea Club Oceanfront Resort -- Shimon Levy, 50, now of Plantation -- came to the United States almost as soon as he was released from an Israeli prison in 1982. He was granted a visa because U.S. immigration officials didn't know of his Israeli conviction as an accessory to murder after the fact.

The case made national headlines in Israel and caused Levy immigration problems as late as 1989. Former Israeli president Chaim Herzog ordered Levy's criminal records destroyed that year for unexplained reasons. But those records turned up later in a New Jersey civil case against Levy.

Those records also reveal earlier Israeli convictions against Levy for tax evasion, insulting a police officer, giving false testimony to a police officer and suborning perjury by urging a police officer not to prosecute an acquaintance.

Both Shimon Levy and Yuz are alleged to have had ties to major Israeli organized crime figures. Former Miami Herald investigative reporter David Kidwell did an extensive investigation into the murder and those ties. Key passages:


Federal authorities are taking seriously an informant's allegations that his murder was tied to South Florida's Israeli underworld -- a complex enterprise allegedly orchestrating the movement of millions in ill-gotten drug proceeds through a myriad of businesses here.
``They have all this drug money they need to clean, and they are looking for any cash business to funnel it through,'' said the federal informant, who has already pleaded guilty to his role in the money laundering. ``Jewelry stores, T-shirt shops, restaurants, strip shopping malls, flea markets, everything. This is just the tip of it.''

... Isaac Benarroch, 64, was being sought for questioning in Yuz's murder because of some threatening letters he sent Yuz four years ago.
Police also suspect that Benarroch shot at a building owned by a friend of Yuz when he was trying to retrieve $600,000 he had lost in a failed investment scheme promoted by Yuz.

Benarroch's partner in a Venezuela tennis club, Ricardo La Bergere, was also shot execution-style in West Palm Beach in February. Neither of the killings has been solved.

Benarroch was a sworn enemy of Yuz. U.S. authorities are more interested in Yuz's circle of friends and their associates, many with ties to a famous list of 11 top Israeli organized crime figures.

The list, leaked to newspapers in 1977 by the Israeli national police, became a news event of Watergate proportions in Israel. Many of those with ties to the list, all proclaiming their innocence, left the country and settled here.

Their business relationships are complex, extend into many facets of South Florida life and have attracted the close attention of investigators.
Among those linked to the infamous list of 11:

Eli Tisona, now in the federal lockup in Miami awaiting trial on money-laundering charges; his brother Ezra, convicted for his role in corruption at the flea market; Shalom Genish, a partner at the market and the target of numerous federal probes; and Shimon Levy, Yuz's partner in the hotel.

Yuz's partner in the Ramada, Shimon Levy, has his own ties to the list of 11. Levy lives in a Plantation house built by Genish and spent a year in Israeli prison in 1981 after he helped hide two top organized crime figures wanted in a grisly double murder in Israel.

Both of the crime figures, eventually sent to prison for the murders, were on the list of 11. Levy did not return Herald telephone calls.

These are interesting ties, especially considering the rampant rumors surrounding Rothstein, but there is no evidence that there are any current ties and there certainly hasn't been any evidence surface to date showing any of the stolen Rothstein money ended up in the hands of organized crime. The reason for Rothstein's alleged payments to Ovi Levy could be simply that he wanted to reimburse his friend for the ripped-off investment. Answers should come in due time.



http://fwix.com/share/50_0a57af0653


http://afrocubaweb.com/news/elevengangsters.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_W._Rothstein

300 million is a lot of Sporgenzas.

Hey Lalo, he sees your Russian Diver and calls you with a Russian nuclear sub.
"Fainberg, manager of a Hialeah strip club called Porky's, was arrested last year on charges he tried to buy a Russian nuclear attack submarine to smuggle drugs from South America."
Your move Lalo.

BigCheez wrote:300 million is a lot of Sporgenzas.

Yup. That's the kind of money that gets people killed PDQ.

Background is Renato investors who were criminals aside from Scott Rothstein. These are the folks who backed Renato back in the day. Interesting note is the reference to a flea market used for money laundering. Abraham Lalo has/had ties to at least one flea market in the Miami area. Probably just a coincidence.


Who killed Broward hotel owner?

Miami Herald, 7/7/97

When an assassin's bullet shattered the window of Zvika Yuz's Mercedes-Benz outside his Fort Lauderdale hotel in May, it came as no shock to federal investigators who for years have traced Israeli organized crime ties to South Florida. Violence, they say, is almost commonplace in Yuz's circle.

Yuz -- a loving father generous to a fault, who borrowed heavily to pay back friends in a failed investment scheme -- was gunned down outside his Ramada Sea Club Ocean Resort by a killer wearing a fake beard and carrying a doll.

The reasons he died may never be fully known. He was surrounded by a culture of secrecy. But federal authorities are taking seriously an informant's allegations that his murder was tied to South Florida's Israeli underworld -- a complex enterprise allegedly orchestrating the movement of millions in ill-gotten drug proceeds through a myriad of businesses here.

``They have all this drug money they need to clean, and they are looking for any cash business to funnel it through,'' said the federal informant, who has already pleaded guilty to his role in the money laundering. ``Jewelry stores, T-shirt shops, restaurants, strip shopping malls, flea markets, everything. This is just the tip of it.''

Until his death, Yuz was not the focus of federal interest in Israeli organized crime. But for more than a decade, agents from almost every federal law enforcement agency -- IRS, INS, SEC, FBI, DEA, Customs, aided by the Israeli national police -- have kept tabs on some of Yuz's associates and acquaintances.

The feds have been looking for proof of a kaleidoscope of crimes -- murder, money laundering, fraud, robbery, bribery, drug trafficking, even the attempted purchase of a Russian nuclear attack submarine.

The investigation has leapfrogged across the world -- from corruption at the old Hialeah/Opa-locka Flea Market to unsolved murders in Israel to murder and drug trafficking in New York to money laundering in Miami. Success has been elusive, at times, for investigators.

``These people don't do business like your typical American businessmen,'' one law enforcement source said. ``They don't have contracts and closings. They do business on a handshake and a promise.

``That's one reason there is so much violence. It's also why it is so difficult to trace.''
``The drug money from Los Angeles gets sent to New York or Miami to be laundered and the other way around, just to make it harder for us to trace,'' said another source close to the investigation. ``It's like a big triangle.''

The targets of these probes say authorities can't prove anything because there is nothing to prove.

A COMPLEX WEB


Many associates linked to list of top criminals

Frustrated investigators are pursuing many leads in Yuz's death, including a possible connection to a Yuz associate found dead last month in Georgia.
Isaac Benarroch, 64, was being sought for questioning in Yuz's murder because of some threatening letters he sent Yuz four years ago.

Police also suspect that Benarroch shot at a building owned by a friend of Yuz when he was trying to retrieve $600,000 he had lost in a failed investment scheme promoted by Yuz.

Benarroch's partner in a Venezuela tennis club, Ricardo La Bergere, was also shot execution-style in West Palm Beach in February. Neither of the killings has been solved.

Benarroch was a sworn enemy of Yuz. U.S. authorities are more interested in Yuz's circle of friends and their associates, many with ties to a famous list of 11 top Israeli organized crime figures.

The list, leaked to newspapers in 1977 by the Israeli national police, became a news event of Watergate proportions in Israel. Many of those with ties to the list, all proclaiming their innocence, left the country and settled here.

Their business relationships are complex, extend into many facets of South Florida life and have attracted the close attention of investigators.
Among those linked to the infamous list of 11: Eli Tisona, now in the federal lockup in Miami awaiting trial on money-laundering charges; his brother Ezra, convicted for his role in corruption at the flea market; Shalom Genish, a partner at the market and the target of numerous federal probes; and Shimon Levy, Yuz's partner in the hotel.

Another is Ilan Kashti, 61, an Israeli jeweler in Miami who has already pleaded guilty to his role in laundering millions for the Cali drug cartel.
Kashti -- whom enemies call a liar and con artist -- has told The Herald and federal authorities that Yuz predicted he would be killed on the orders of ``one of the most dangerous men in the whole east of the United States.''

Kashti has turned government informant in exchange for the possibility of a reduced sentence and, he says, because his own son has turned against him in favor of the flash and money of the Israeli syndicate. He says the entire operation centers on Eli Tisona.

Eli Tisona, 53, who now owns a condominium at Turnberry Isle, made millions in Israel as head of the country's Wimpy hamburger restaurant chain. He was on the ``list of 11.''

Tisona also owns a fish farm in Bogota, where he was arrested in April. He was then brought to Miami to face a 1995 indictment on charges he masterminded a conspiracy to launder $42 million in New York drug proceeds through Miami jewelry store accounts. He denies the charges.

Five others were also indicted in the scheme, including Tisona's daughter, Kineret Tisona Kashti; his son-in-law, Yehuda Kashti; and Yehuda's father, Ilan Kashti.
Jewelry stores are a favorite way to launder drug money, sources said, because cash is so easily hidden among huge and flexible profit margins.
The Herald twice interviewed Ilan Kashti at his invitation for a total of three hours. He continually demanded money in exchange for the interview and was repeatedly told there would be no payment.

Finally, he broke off communications and would say no more. Asked if he was frightened for his life, Kashti said, ``No, I'm not scared. I'm careful.''
Then he added, taking out a holstered weapon, ``They let me keep my concealed weapons permit.'' Kashti has refused an offer to enter the federal witness protection program.

WHOM TO BELIEVE?

Government witness says hotel money was motive It's Kashti's contention that Yuz was killed on orders from Tisona, either because of unpaid debts or because Yuz was standing in the way of the sale of the Ramada Sea Club Ocean Resort. According to Kashti, Tisona wanted the proceeds to pay legal bills.
``He has all this money, but lawyers won't take drug money,'' Kashti said. ``They are very sensitive about that. He needed clean money.''
Yuz, who had only a 12.5 percent, $100,000 interest in the hotel, was also its manager.

``All I know for sure is that he was telling people he was a dead man if Eli Tisona came back to the U.S,'' Kashti said.
Tisona's attorneys call the allegation ``ridiculous'' and the rantings of a man trying to save himself.
``I know the feds have made a deal with this guy and they are stuck with him, but I wouldn't put too much faith in what this Ilan Kashti says,'' said Joel Kaplan, who represents Tisona's daughter and her husband.

``The evidence will show that it was [Ilan] Kashti who was engaging in all the criminal activity.'' Tisona did not respond to a written request for an interview in jail. His trial is set for January. Kashti is locked in a bitter feud with his son, who he says calls the shots in Tisona's South Florida crime organization.
Yehuda Kashti, 37, declined to discuss the case with The Herald. But he recently told an Israeli newspaper he has disowned his father.
``I am ashamed, destroyed, broken,'' said the younger Kashti, who is out on bond. ``I take responsibility myself for every day that Eli Tisona sits in prison. It is on my conscience.''

In January, Yehuda Kashti was charged with careless driving after he crashed the gate at his Turnberry Isle condominium complex. The Jeep he was driving was registered to another subject of a federal investigation, Ludwig ``Tarzan'' Fainberg.

Fainberg, manager of a Hialeah strip club called Porky's, was arrested last year on charges he tried to buy a Russian nuclear attack submarine to smuggle drugs from South America.

WEB OF INTRIGUE

Principal figures had fingers in many pies Within days after Yuz was shot -- even before he died -- Tisona prosecutor Richard Gregorie came to the courtroom where longtime Yuz friend and attorney Joel Hirschhorn was trying an unrelated case. He asked me about this guy Tisona, whether there could be a connection,'' Hirschhorn said. ``I was able to confirm that [Yuz] did indeed have an acquaintance with Yehuda Kashti. What it was exactly, I have no idea.''
Hirschhorn said he established through a mutual friend there were meetings between Yuz and Yehuda Kashti, but not what was on the agenda. Yuz ``was hard pressed for money for a long time, I know that,'' Hirschhorn said. ``He was borrowing from whomever he could.'' Hirschhorn referred to Yuz's general partnership in a failed business that federal authorities have called one of the largest fraud schemes in Florida history -- Premium Sales Corp.

From 1989 through 1993, Yuz was busy wooing Israeli investors into the Aventura-based business.
It collapsed under the weight of a federal investigation in 1993, leaving 1,600 investors with losses totaling $300 million. Yuz, who was never charged, had collected $22 million in investments from influential Israeli figures who wanted their money back, Hirschhorn said.
One of those investors was Isaac Benarroch. Police suspect he came to hate Yuz after Premium's collapse. Another investor was Shalom Genish -- a man who federal investigators believe is far more dangerous.

Yuz and Eli Tisona had a mutual friend in Genish. Genish, 50, has acknowledged in court papers that his friendship and business ties to the Tisona family go back more than 20 years. Genish is a millionaire with a self-admitted gambling problem and a penchant for turning up in federal probes of Israeli organized crime.
He once owned the largest construction firm in Israel and hobnobbed with prime ministers, but he was business partners with at least two men on the infamous list of 11.

Now, Genish is a fugitive from his home country on charges of bribery and tax evasion. He could not be reached for comment. His attorneys declined to comment.
``They have nothing,'' Genish said in a 1993 interview with the Israeli newspaper Yedoith Achronoth. ``They have already investigated me from A to Z. Shalom Genish is as clean as a baby.''

Genish and Eli Tisona's brother Ezra -- a professional backgammon player and gambler who was also named on the list -- were the principal partners in the Hialeah/Opa-locka Flea Market.

Ezra Tisona and another partner named Joseph Lazar were convicted of stealing $1 million in fill dirt to develop the market. Lazar was charged with bribing an Opa-locka planning official and took $1,000 to acquire for Genish what turned out to be a forged U.S. passport. Two other Israelis connected to the market were charged with money laundering.

In 1990, Lazar was murdered execution-style. Genish remains a suspect in that unsolved killing, investigators say.
Records show that Genish also has ties to Israeli organized crime in New York.

About the time Genish was caught in Nassau, Bahamas, with his fake passport, federal agents in New York were wrapping up their 1990 probe into a Nassau-based Israeli ring whose members were eventually convicted of money laundering, drug trafficking and five execution-style murders.
Genish was never charged criminally, but federal prosecutors accused him of collecting and stashing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the enterprise. The civil forfeiture case was settled when Genish agreed to testify against one of the murderers in future cases.

A New York jeweler sued Genish and Yuz, among others, for allegedly laundering proceeds from one of several New York robberies through one of Yuz's companies, Carmel Foods, which was set up solely to invest in Premium. Although Yuz was later dropped from the suit, that case is still pending.
Weeks before his death, Yuz flew to Las Vegas to meet with Genish, Hirschhorn said. ``I don't know why. I know it was business.''
The connections don't end there.

Yuz's partner in the Ramada, Shimon Levy, has his own ties to the list of 11. Levy lives in a Plantation house built by Genish and spent a year in Israeli prison in 1981 after he helped hide two top organized crime figures wanted in a grisly double murder in Israel.

Both of the crime figures, eventually sent to prison for the murders, were on the list of 11. Levy did not return Herald telephone calls.
``Frankly, all this totally blows me away,'' said Hirschhorn, who represented Yuz in the Premium bankruptcy case.

``I've known him for years, and this whole drama, this web of intrigue, was a side of him he kept hidden.'' Copyright 1997 The Miami Herald

Back in the day I had a Renato . I liked it for whatever that’s worth. Just the drama killed the company. Good article koi

I have 3 renato t-rex models sitting in a watchbox with long dead batteries. Carol purchased them for me as gifts.




First time I have put these on since before Carol passed away.


^^^^^^^^^^
Host pick watch



^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I told her I liked the gun metal and this showed up a week later




^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Eddiea had mentioned this one to me before they were sold at slop. He purchased one from Mink directly. Only 25 ever made of this model, "layered swiss rose gold". Sold out before it made it on air. Carol had seen it while doing a TB/eddiefluffer thing at slop. She loved rose gold (almost all of her jewelry including her wedding ring were rose gold). It was to match her rose gold was the excuse I heard. Never wore, only wear a regular gold ring and no gold watches.

In my opinion, they are ok for what they are.
I own about 10 and still enjoy getting them out from time-to-time.

That story is like a bad Novella. To think Israeli's would be involv....oh wait. There was that Myra Lanski fellow

Haven't read this for a long time - incredible.

I had a couple of the early ones that were ok - bought one during the going out of business fire sale - a Vulcan IIRC that had a gap all the way around the middle of the case that I could slip the corners of a stack of 5 sheets of printer paper about 4 or 5mm into. To their credit, 5 weeks later I did get a refund. Really too bad the pile of shit Mink turned that deal in too.

SNBC was like Mos Isley spaceport. You were never more than two degrees of separation between a TV watch and actual criminal activity.

Hawk wrote: ↑

June 2nd 2022, 7:18pm

SNBC was like Mos Isley spaceport. You were never more than two degrees of separation between a TV watch and actual criminal activity.

Well said, although I could have done without the Star Wars reference. But then, I'm a fucking asshole.

Whatever shopnbc is called today they are still hocking crap Chinese watches