Skeletons in the Closet

If reading about MBI cases is not your thing, you probably are not reading this blog anyway, so I'll keep saying what I have to say. We have a real serious situation here and I will take this opportunity to bring it to your attention.

The serious situation concerns some 1996 cases – you're probably thinking that the cases are beyond concern because of time limitations, but think again. You also might wonder how many cases I'm referring to when I use the term some. I know of many cases that were merged with other cases, so I am positive that I'm talking about one case with 9 defendants, one case with 1 defendant, and one case with 5 defendants. I am sure/positive that there are more that I am unaware of, as I do know that some were moved to nearby Osceola County and some are single-defendant cases wherein I do not know the defendant's name to search for the case. So, to start with, we are talking about the lives of 15 people. The Orange County case numbers are:

96-CF-0003504-O
96-CF-0011913-O
96-CF-0011915-O


The first listed case involved five defendants charged as a part of Operation Plastic Empire. It's a case that I will examine closely in the coming week. The main defendant is Joseph Fabozzi. The other defendants are Carmine Fabozzi (now deceased), Mario Fabozzi (in a Florida prison), Andrew Luaces, and Luaces' wife.

The second listed case involved the nine defendants listed in Operation Plastic Empire.

The third noted case is the one defendant case – Victoria Igunbola was arrested on a misdemeanor account of prostitution six months earlier, signed up (she owned her own escort service) with Operation Plastic Empire to accept credit cards, was arrested for money laundering and credit card factoring, and then began her new career as an informant for MBI. She set-up lots of people (owners and workers) in the body-scrub parlor busts of 1997. Most of Victoria's victims never had a clue as none went to trial. I knew she was an informant when she started working at a Seminole County parlor and a friend working there described her to me.

So what is the problem here?


Well, the root of the problem is that Operation Plastic Empire – the big credit card sting case that began as IRS Operation Out Call, was not a legal set-up at all and the cases should be overturned. The many defendants should never have been charged to begin with. In federal law there is a remedy for this, regardless of guilty pleas and any attorneys that neglected to file appeals, and that remedy is not limited in time. This complex reverse sting operation criminalized and prosecuted commercial behavior, and not criminal behavior. The State of Florida had no justification to prosecute the defendants. The worst part, other than the ruined lives, is that this actually passed the smell test with Circuit Court judges and defense attorneys, but then that's how it often is with railroad jobs. This is just the beginning.

More on this mess as it develops.