The Florida Fraud Files: True Stories of Con Artists, Scams, and Fortunes Lost

A gold dealer's vault held painted blocks of wood. A celebrated music manager sold savings accounts backed by assets that were not there. A prominent lawyer invented confidential settlements. And a national veterans charity turned out to be an organization made largely of names on paper. The Florida Fraud Files follows thirteen documented schemes from promise to collapse. Across Fort Lauderdale, Tampa, Orlando, Ocala, Miami, and beyond, the cases move through precious metals, religious affinity, life-insurance investments, mortgage finance, Medicare billing, stolen identities, federal student aid, royal impersonation, timeshare resales, charitable giving, and clinical-trial data. Eli Strongrum looks past the easy mythology of the "Florida con artist" to show the systems that made each deception credible. Real policies supported false projections. Real patients supported false claims. Real schools, law offices, companies, and professional credentials gave invented transactions the appearance of ordinary business. >The first volume in The State Fraud Files reveals a durable pattern: fraud succeeds when a document, title, or institution is accepted as a substitute for the fact it claims to prove.