Samir Cabrera faces seven counts of wire and mail fraud for transfers of investor money into the property-deal companies.

31-year-old Samir Cabrera — a free-wheeling spender who flaunted his wild market gains in jewelry, cars and extravagant parties — and the investors who claim he pocketed their money to feed his lifestyle.Bob Mengle, a retiree and Vietnam veteran, lost $150,000 in retirement funds. Like other victims, he’s eager to testify.“We have all our ducks in a row,” he said.Prosecutors say Cabrera bilked investors of $2.8 million in undisclosed deals for two commercial properties on Fiddlesticks Boulevard in south Fort Myers.With each parcel, he bought the land at a normal price and then resold it the same day to a company he managed — one funded with investment dollars — at a much higher price, the indictment states.Investors never knew Cabrera was the seller, and he intentionally kept the information from them, it says.Prosecutors say the real estate agent and his associates pocketed each deal’s profit, known as “kicker fees.”Cabrera transferred $100,000 of the money to a Las Vegas casino account in his name, the indictment charges. More than $350,000 went to a shared account between him and his wife, former NBC-2 anchor Jessica Stilwell, it states.Prosecutors also charge that Cabrera embezzled roughly $20,000 from one of the companies.Some investors wondered if their money fueled the wild parties they saw Cabrera throw, paid for the champagne he sprayed during nights out in Fort Myers or comprised the cash he was seen throwing in Philadelphia clubs. After being arrested following the indictment, Cabrera tested positive for cocaine.
“It wasn’t an investment,” one investor bitterly said of his money in 2008. “It was a contribution, a contribution to the Samir Cabrera fund.”In court, Cabrera will hold that he thought investors were made aware of the property flips. His attorney, John Mills, is set to pin the failure to two of Cabrera’s associates — the chief operating officer of the company and an attorney — both of whom, he wrote in a motion, said the deals were transparent to investors.“Our central defense is Mr. Cabrera thought the disclosure was made,” Mills told Judge John E. Steele.
Cabrera will testify as much, he said. Mills hopes to buttress that testimony with e-mails and documents traded between Cabrera and his associates, as well as the testimony of another of Cabrera’s associates who claims he was told the disclosures were made. All could be construed as hearsay, however, and must be approved by Steele before being admitted.Outside the courtroom, Cabrera’s case rattled Lee County government when roughly $125,000 from the property deals was traced to Lee County Manager Don Stilwell, Cabrera’s father-in-law. Stilwell called the money a dollar-by-dollar reimbursement for a loan to Cabrera.

If it was instead a return on an investment, as some claimed, the money represented a serious breach of ethics. Stilwell had sway over county land deals, and Cabrera’s property was considered a candidate for development. The manager had twice told commissioners he had no dealings in county-targeted land.

During a five-hour meeting in September, county commissioners weighed Stilwell’s employment against a belief by some that Stilwell had lied.

By the end of the meeting, he still had his job. An investigation concluded he wasn’t invested in the properties and therefore hadn’t lied. Stilwell received a big hug from his daughter, a tearful Jessica Stilwell, as cameras flashed in the auditorium.

“It’s a tragedy when people run off with one thing and build speculation on speculation,” he said of press coverage.

Some commissioners remained uneasy with the way the investigation was conducted. Others groused that the county manager ever allowed the suggestion of scandal.

“Did you lie? No,” Commissioner Frank Mann told Stilwell. “Did you engage in activities that brought about the appearance of indiscretion? I know you did.”

Cabrera’s trial also comes more than a year after his former boss, broker Frank D’Alessandro, a real estate guru and co-partner of D’Alessandro and Woodyard, drowned while on a kayaking excursion.

D’Alessandro was the subject of several lawsuits after investment schemes reliant on a hot housing market soured with a faltering economy.

A property financing company he ran also played a role in Cabrera’s scheme, prosecutors claim, by lending money to the investor-funded companies for each land deal. The kicker fees were hidden from investors by being lumped with loan repayments on cash ledgers, the indictment states.

The company was never indicted for Cabrera’s deals, and, following D’Alessandro’s death, it foreclosed on the Fiddlesticks properties.

Cabrera faces seven counts of wire and mail fraud for transfers of investor money into the property-deal companies. Each is worth 20 years in prison.

Five other counts are for money laundering, and each is worth 10 years in prison.

Cabrera, who has been working in Miami since the indictment, was back in court on Friday for a pre-trial conference. Clean-shaven and wearing a dark pinstripe suit, he sat close to wife Stilwell before moving to the defense table at the beginning of the hearing. Stilwell has remained a constant presence during hearings, often shaking her head in disagreement with prosecutors.

Both she and Cabrera declined to speak to a reporter on Friday. Mills, citing the court’s general distaste for its parties talking to the media, would only say he was ready to have the case before a jury.