MIAMI – The former mayor of North Miami Beach has been charged in an alleged $150,000 land investment scheme.
Myron Rosner was arrested Tuesday and charged with securities fraud, grand theft, sale of an unregistered security and sale of security by an unregistered dealer.
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According to the Miami-Dade County state attorney's office, Rosner made a series of false investment representations and omitted several facts to Dr. David Rosenbaum, an investor who donated $150,000 to Rosner intended for the development of 2.2 acres of vacant land in North Miami.
Prosecutors said Rosenbaum was one of 10 planned limited partners in the deal. They said Rosenbaum received an investment package indicating that Rosner's wife, Sarah Zabel, was general partner of the limited partnership.
An investigation by prosecutors and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation revealed that the partnership failed to gain any additional investors.
Instead of returning Rosenbaum's $150,000, the money was used to pay $13,000 toward Rosner's home mortgage, $10,000 to Rosner's construction company, $86,700 to Rosner directly and about $30,000 in personal expenses through Rosner's construction company, authorities said.
Prosecutors said a balance of just $350 was left in the investment account when all was said and done.
"Florida's securities statutes exist to protect investors from fraud," Miami state attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. "Good faith, good intentions and grand plans mean little when invested monies are transformed into credit card and mortgage payments."
Rosner was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $20,000 bond.