Apr.28, 2010, Source: Daily Business Review

When Scott Rothstein was an unknown labor and employment lawyer in Florida's suburban Broward County, Debra Villegas was there at his side as his trusted paralegal.

She followed Rothstein to three law firms on his rise to become one of South Florida's larger-than-life power brokers, political donors and philanthropists. Federal prosecutors charged Tuesday that she helped him pull off his fraud and reaped the financial rewards of his $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme in the form of a Weston, Fla., home purchased for $100 and a Maserati sports car.

Prosecutors charged Villegas, who ended up as chief operating officer at Rothstein's Fort Lauderdale, Fla., law firm, as the first co-conspirator in his settlement financing fraud. Her first court appearance is set for this morning in Fort Lauderdale.

Fort Lauderdale attorney Paul Lazarus, who has represented Villegas, did not return calls for comment by deadline. Villegas worked in Rothstein's inner sanctum at the Fort Lauderdale office of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler -- an opulent suite behind locked doors accessible only to a very few people at the firm. The contents already have been auctioned. Rothstein told attorneys at the firm that she was answerable to no one but him.

"We knew that this was coming, didn't we? There are going to be more to follow, that's for sure," said William Scherer, partner at Conrad & Scherer in Fort Lauderdale who represents some of Rothstein's alleged victims. "I think she is the lowest of the low-hanging fruit, and they are going to be working their way up the letterhead."

Villegas played an intricate role in Rothstein's scheme using lawsuit settlements to defraud investors, the criminal information said. Villegas is accused of fabricating fictitious plaintiffs for bogus settlements used as the basis for recruiting investors.

When Rothstein was charged in December, prosecutors said he did not act alone. Villegas is the first to be charged since the law firm chairman's arrest.

John V. Gillies, special agent in charge of the FBI in Miami, issued a statement saying Villegas could have turned in Rothstein when he started using the settlement scheme to fleece targets four years ago but instead became his most trusted conspirator.

"She chose greed over her integrity, and now she will have to pay the price for her actions," Gillies said.

Villegas now faces a money-laundering conspiracy charge, which carries a possible 10-year prison sentence.

The method of charging Villegas -- a nine-page criminal information -- indicates she has reached a deal with prosecutors in the case assigned to U.S. District Judge William Zloch.

The government also is seeking the forfeiture of her $475,000 home, a 2,612-square-foot home at 380 Carrington Drive in Weston, and her $100,000 blue-gray 2009 Maserati GranTurismo, which can't be located.

Investors in Rothstein's settlement financing fraud were duped into wiring money to TD Bank and Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust, prosecutors said. The money would then be transferred for personal "use and benefit of the co-conspirators." Villegas started working as a paralegal for Rothstein in Plantation, Fla., in the mid-1990s. He became a well-tailored power broker with money from his fraud, donating heavily to campaigns and charities and investing in trendy restaurants and other business ventures.

RRA, which at its peak had about 70 attorneys, is now in bankruptcy.

Villegas' life turned tragic in 2008 when estranged husband Tony Villegas allegedly gunned down her best friend, RRA partner Melissa Britt Lewis, blaming her for breaking up their marriage. Tony Villegas is being held at the Broward County Jail facing a murder charge.

Fearing for his safety, Rothstein hired Fort Lauderdale police as a personal security detail. When prosecutors charged Rothstein, they said he used Ponzi money to make illegal campaign contributions, buying access to Gov. Charlie Crist and a whole host of politicians on the national stage. Contributions allegedly were made by RRA attorneys and employees through bogus bonuses and loans.

Villegas went from contributing $2,000 in 2006 to at least $34,000 in the 2008 federal election cycle, records show. Rothstein, who has been jailed and disbarred, has pleaded guilty to fraud charges and faces up to 100 years in prison at sentencing scheduled in June.