Trustee Marika Tolz charged with $16 million fraud

The South Florida Business Journal has the story about 64-year-old Hollywood bankruptcy trustee Marika Tolz here. She is charged with misappropriating $16 million in court funds and pocketing $2.4 million of it for herself.

The case is set for first appearance before Judge Garber today at 1:30. Luis Perez is prosecuting and Ben Kuehne is defending. The case is assigned to Judge Lenard. Tolz is charged by way of information so it is evident that a deal already has been struck. In fact the SFBJ is reporting that Ben Kuehne says that Tolz “acknowledges her errors and fully anticipates that all funds will be fully reimburse or restitution made.” More:

Kuehne confirmed that Tolz intends to plead guilty.

“She will be accepting full responsibility for her conduct,” he said.

I asked Kuehne if he could say why Tolz started down the path of corruption. The charges against her suggest she used official funds for person expenses beginning in 2003, but the government’s information in the case doesn’t accuse her of living a “lavish lifestyle,” like other recent fraud cases in South Florida.

“At this point offering any factual description would only be viewed as trying to explain away what happened,” Kuehne said. “She is not attempting to offer excuses.”