Debra Villegas was Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein's most trusted lieutenant, at his side for 17 years.
She was so loyal to him that, on Friday, she followed him into federal prison.
In the boomtime of the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm in downtown Fort Lauderdale, Villegas' power was unalloyed — Rothstein made it abundantly clear to his 70 lawyers and support staff that orders from her were tantamount to orders from him.
Now, Villegas' fleeting trappings of success are gone: The nearly half-million dollar home in a Weston gated community, a gift from Rothstein that he conveyed to her with "love and affection"; and her $100,000 Maserati – also a gift – that was auctioned off by the government a year ago.
Her new domicile, effective Friday, is the minimum-security federal prison camp outside the Central Florida city of Coleman, northwest of Orlando. She beat her noon surrender deadline by 11 minutes, said Bureau of Prisons spokesman Chris Burke.
"She is going to be booked into the institution. She is going to be interviewed for any social issues, any medical issues, any psychological issues," Burke said. "She is going to be searched visually. Most of her property is going to be taken away from her. She will be changed out into our prison uniform. Typically it is green cotton pants and a green cotton, button-up shirt."
The booking process involves being fingerprinted and photographed, Burke said. Villegas will be assigned to a bed, typically in a two- or four-person cubicle setting with shoulder high walls, he said. Once she completes her orientation, she will be assigned a job to perform for about seven hours a day.
"It varies from sweeping floors to chopping onions," Burke said.
For now, Villegas is facing 10 years behind bars. She hopes her extensive cooperation with the FBI and IRS agents in their wide-reaching investigation into Rothstein's $1.4 billion investment fraud will eventually significantly reduce that prison term.
Her attorney, Robert Stickney, said Villegas will continue to aid investigators from the lockup.
"We are cooperating all the way through," he said. "She can continue her cooperation from any location."
Villegas, 44, pleaded guilty last year to forging signatures on phony legal settlements and laundering money coming into the Rothstein law firm's bank accounts. The judge gave her the maximum sentence, but she had remained free until Friday while she cooperated. She married and moved to a bucolic home in Clewiston.
Four other former Rothstein associates have pleaded guilty in recent weeks to a charge of conspiring to commit wire fraud and face up to five years in prison. They include Howard Kusnick, a former Rothstein law partner; Stephen Caputi, Rothstein's partner in the Café Iguana nightclub in Pembroke Pines; and two of the now defunct law firm's computer specialists, Curtis Renie and William J. Corte.
Rothstein himself is serving a 50-year federal prison sentence at an undisclosed location. He has become the subject of a tug-of-war between bankruptcy attorneys, prosecutors and lawyers for victims of the fraud.
The bankruptcy lawyers and the others want Rothstein temporarily released from prison for a deposition, but prosecutors say that would endanger a forthcoming indictment of more of Rothstein's co-conspirators. A judge is scheduled to take up the complex issues surrounding that legal fight next week.
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