A Miami and Orlando attorney suspended after clients say he ‘misappropriated’ $57,000
THURSDAY UPDATE: Robert Pereda emailed the Miami Herald after two days after this article originally posted.
Accusations of misappropriated funds — $50,000 in one transaction that allegedly involved his wife — and ghosting the Florida Bar after five clients filed grievances ended with the emergency suspension of Miami attorney Robert Pereda.
Pereda’s emergency suspension goes into effect July 17.
The registered number for Pereda’s Rob Law firm office in Orlando’s Celebration area is disconnected. Rob Law’s address listed with the Florida Bar and state corporation records, 1420 Celebration Blvd., Suite 200, now also appears in state records as the address of the Foundation for Empowerment & Enlightenment via Literature & Education, registered Nov. 17, 2021.
Pereda is listed as the still-active corporation’s chief executive officer. Pereda’s wife, Zsa Zsa Pereda, is the chief operating officer. An Alexander Acosta from Coral Gables is listed as the chief financial officer.
Two days after this article first posted, Pereda sent an email that included what he said was his response to the Florida Bar. What Pereda sent indicated the Bar offered disciplinary revocation, which is, essentially, a five-year disbarment but also makes all disciplinary matters disappear (any civil or criminal matters arising from the actions in question remain).
Pereda said he was fine with that, as he didn’t intend to practice law again, but he was not fine with being ordered to pay restitution.
Because, Pereda said, his main accuser, 67-year-old convicted cocaine dealer Enrique Valcarcel, is a scammer and the $50,000 in question wasn’t stolen.
What happened to the $50,000?
Valcarcel told the Florida Bar he met in August with both Peredas about negotiating the sale of a South Miami-Dade home in foreclosure at 10705 SW 138th St., owned by Sol Wireless Group.
Valcarcel said he was representing the interests of Sol president Carlos Pino. Court documents say that’s where Valcarcel lived in 2007 when he was arrested on the charges that would send him to federal prison for five years and seven months.
Valcarcel said Robert Pereda told him the lender in question wanted documentation that Pino didn’t have easily available. So Zsa Zsa Pereda, Valcarcel said, “requested $50,000.00 from him as a ‘good faith’ deposit to show the lender in order to obtain more time to resolve Mr. Pino’s and Sol Wireless Group’s foreclosure matter.”
Pereda’s response to the Bar said the $50,000 was for a pending settlement proposal.
“After failing to produce the documents requested by Plaintiff’s counsel, I realized he had no intention of settling,” Pereda’s response said. “I advised him that if the case could not settle, I would use the funds towards the fees he had promised me. He swore to me up and down that he would pay me once the case was done. I knew this would never happen.”
Pereda also said when he told Valcarcel to file “a legitimate chapter 11 case to resolve the foreclosure,” Valcarcel’s interest dissipated.
On Sept. 7, Valcarcel transferred $50,000 into Rob Law’s Chase Bank account.
Valcarcel said after several failed meetings with Pereda — “he always had an excuse to miss previous appointments and he always had a family member hospitalized” — he asked for the $50,000 back. Pereda told him he would get it to him after the closing or when the lender received the property.
Valcarcel said he didn’t see Pereda again.
A Florida Bar examination of the Rob Law trust account said that $50,000 left the account from Sept. 13 through Nov. 8 via online transfers to Rob Law’s operating account and Pereda’s personal account. Out of the latter account, he paid FPL, Publix, AC Auto Repair and shopped on Apple.com and sent Zelle payments.
By Nov. 12, bank records included with the suspension request show Rob Law’s trust account balance was zero, the operating account balance was $113.10 underwater and Pereda’s personal account was $574.03 in the red. It also includes an insufficient funds notification from Chase Bank concerning Pereda’s trust account.
The Bar said a subpoena in March for trust account records since January 2021 has been ignored.
Money for nothing?
When Valcarcel went by Pereda’s office in February, eight days after another lawyer handled the matter and the Southwest 138th Street house was sold, he said he saw nothing inside. But, he said he did see a note on the door from Juana Castellanos, claiming Pereda had scammed her.
Castellanos ($2,000), Georgette Livia ($500), Oscar Zapata ($2,000) and Ramses Brito Diaz ($2,500) said they paid Robert Pereda to handle their bankruptcy cases, but he ignored their cases and ignored them. The Florida Bar said Pereda ignored its requests for response to the four grievances.
Pereda’s letter to the Bar said Valcarcel put the note on his door after he’d moved out and blames it for the other grievances.
“I had reached out to all my clients and asked for their patience due to family matters,” Pereda wrote. “They were all fine and then suddenly a rash of complaints.”
A little bankruptcy work for one client — his wife
Online Miami-Dade property records say Zsa Zsa Pereda sold their four-bedroom, three-bathroom residence in Juniper at the Hammocks to Ohio company Advanced Basement Products in February. The price: $122,000.
Court documents from U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge A. Jay Cristol included with the emergency suspension petition indicates this was a foreclosure sale. Cristol wrote Pereda filed three prior cases on behalf of his wife, all of which had “filing deficiencies.” Pereda didn’t fix those or pay filing fees owed before the couple pulled a joint no-show for a May 19 hearing.
Cristol referred Pereda to the Bar for investigation into client abandonment and “the serial bare-bones bankruptcy filings on behalf of this Debtor, presumably Mr. Pereda’s spouse, abusing the process and the laws and stopping foreclosure sales on multiple occasions.”
This story was originally published July 5, 2022 at 3:02 PM with the headline "A Miami and Orlando attorney suspended after clients say he ‘misappropriated’ $57,000."
