Apr.29, 2010, Source: Daily Business Review

The chief operating officer at Scott Rothstein's law firm pleaded not guilty Wednesday to money-laundering conspiracy in his $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme and was granted $250,000 bond.

Debra Villegas, Rothstein's longtime assistant, surrendered to federal marshals Wednesday, appeared in court in handcuffs and pleaded not guilty.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robin Rosenbaum set the next hearing in the case for May 13.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lawrence LaVecchio said in court that Villegas has been cooperating with federal authorities since November, when the scandal broke.

Villegas' Fort Lauderdale. Fla., attorney, Robert Stickney, asked that reporters not talk to his client when she left court because she suffers from vasavagal syncope, which causes fainting spells. He said her last incident was two weeks ago. The condition causes her to fall and wind up in the emergency room.

"The defendant has known this has been coming for some time," LaVecchio said in arguing for bond. "If she was going to flee, she would have fled some time ago." He also wanted her to be free so she can "most effectively complete her assistance for the government."

Villegas is only the second person charged in the settlement-financing fraud.

Rosenbaum ordered a personal surety bond, which does not require any cash to be provided.

Villegas, a newly remarried mother of three school-age children, is living in Clewiston, Fla., with her husband, Daniel Coffee, who has a home valued at $195,000.

The criminal information charging Villegas on Tuesday seeks forfeiture of a Weston, Fla., house that she bought from Rothstein for $100 and a Maserati sports car. She agreed to sign a quit-claim deed on the house, and the Maserati has been taken.

Christina Kitterman -- a former Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler attorney who attended the hearing to support her friend, Villegas -- said, "She's doing as well as can be expected."

Villegas' ex-husband, Tony Villegas, has been charged with murdering her best friend, RRA partner Melissa Britt Lewis, in 2008. He allegedly blamed Lewis for breaking up their marriage.