Don Stilwell

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FORT MYERS — Two of the money laundering charges now facing real estate agent Samir Cabrera involve payments to Lee County Manager Don Stilwell.

In spring 2006, two checks — one for $76,731.24 and one for $50,000 — went to Stilwell, who is Cabrera’s father-in-law.

The transfers, which were described in an expanded 12-count federal indictment of Cabrera that was released Wednesday, were allegedly part of a scheme to defraud investors in two land deals along Fiddlesticks Boulevard in south Fort Myers.

The indictment identified the recipient of the two checks only by a set of initials, but Stilwell’s attorney, Patrick Geraghty, confirmed Thursday that those initials — D.D.S. — referred to his client, who is under a county-ordered investigation for his role in his son-in-law’s real estate ventures. One county commissioner said considering the new revelations, he would not be surprised if Stilwell is not only involved but indicted, also.

Geraghty said he didn’t know what the two payments were for and said he wouldn’t know until looking over records.

“I can tell you it has nothing to do with Daniels View,” he said, referring to one of the commercial land deals Cabrera was managing in 2006 and 2007. The Daniels View deal is one in which county commissioners have hired an outside fraud expert to look into Stilwell’s financial ties and involvement in the project, as the value of the land would have increased if the county paid to extend a roadway through the property.

According to the indictment, which dealt only with the Fiddlesticks deals, the checks to Stilwell came from a joint account held by Cabrera and his wife, NBC-2 news anchor Jessica Stilwell, the county manager’s daughter.

One check was made out in May 2006; the other was from June 2006.

Stilwell had invested $100,000 in one of the Fiddlesticks deals, and Cabrera managed them both. The ventures lost nearly $5.5 million of investors’ money within a little more than a year, and federal prosecutors claim the failure was due to fraud.

Lee County Commissioner Brian Bigelow is not surprised that D.D.S. turned out to be Don Stilwell.

“Not in the least,” he said. “I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if he was indicted himself.”

Bigelow has tried repeatedly to fire the county manager, both before and after the county investigation began.

“Every time we learn more, we learn more about his connection and his involvement,” he said.

Bigelow said he believes Stilwell is in a position now to leave his job and negotiate a severance package, and he might even support such a move.

“I would be happier to see him leave than stay,” he said. “Under what circumstances, I don’t think I’d really have much say, but it might be worth it to us to have to part with some taxpayers’ dollars to part company.”

Commissioner Frank Mann said that he wants to wait until the commission-ordered investigation is finished.

“In the final analysis, I’m waiting for this outside consultant of ours,” he said. “It seems like he’s being very thorough, and if he sees this issue as relevant, frankly, I’d like to see him pursue this as well.”

As for Cabrera — who first faced criminal charges for fraud in June and now faces several new charges in connection with the Fiddlesticks deals — he has entered a written plea of not guilty to the new charges facing him.

Cabrera, 31, faces a total of 12 counts related to the two Fiddlesticks deals.

Seven of the charges are for wire fraud; five are for money laundering.

His initial indictment was announced in June — the same day the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice announced a nationwide crackdown on real estate fraud.

The Fiddlesticks land deals — which involved property flips that Cabrera allegedly didn’t disclose — were described in the indictment as a scheme to defraud investors. The indictment detailed more than $2 million in so-called “kicker fees” paid out of investors’ money to Cabrera and his associates.

On the two Fiddlesticks deals, Cabrera successfully raised nearly millions from investors. By early 2007, that money was gone and the two properties were in foreclosure.

John Mills, Cabrera’s attorney, said the kicker fees paid to Cabrera and others were “legitimate business expenses” and represented “the first level of investors were getting compensated for their time and money.”

“It wasn’t a scheme to defraud,” he said.

The new charges added this week describe transfers of money from Cabrera’s management company to a casino in Las Vegas, as well as the transfers to Stilwell.

Mills said the new charges do not change the focus of the case or Cabrera’s defense — that if the deals were legitimate, Cabrera could do what he liked with the money he made from them.

“The government still has to prove that these two real estate deals were illegal,” Mills said.

“The profits from these business transactions he could spend as he saw fit,” he said, explaining that would include transferring $100,000 from a company account to a Las Vegas casino. “That was money that was his.”

On April 13, 2006, the date of the transfer to the resort and casino Wynn Las Vegas, accounting records from Cabrera’s project at 13800 Fiddlesticks Blvd. show he had made money off the deal: exactly $436,226.25. That’s the amount the initial indictment listed as his share of “kicker fees” from an undisclosed resale of the property.

Mills noted that in addition to managing the Fiddlesticks land deals, Cabrera was also making a “substantial amount of money” through his work as a real estate agent working for commercial real estate brokerage D’Alessandro & Woodyard in 2006.

A federal grand jury had initially indicted Cabrera on four counts of wire fraud in June. His trial had been scheduled for August and has been postponed until at least October, but Mills said he would be asking for a November trial date.

Cabrera remains free on bond.

“He’s in Miami, working to support his family,” Mills said.

Also on Thursday, prosecutors made a request that Cabrera surrender any passports he still may have.

According to a court document, prosecutors believe Cabrera has an expired Colombian passport, and they’re asking that he not seek to renew it.

Cabrera was born in Colombia, but he left the country when he was 9 years old, Mills said, and so he wouldn’t have a more recent Colombian passport.

He surrendered his U.S. passport in June.

Since his indictment, Cabrera has sought to work outside the United States — a request a judge denied.

Staff writer Charlie Whitehead contributed to this report.