Miami-area attorney was charged with fiancé in pandemic fraud case. A judge acquitted her
Two years ago, a South Florida lawyer was charged with her fiancé and others in what appeared to be a textbook conspiracy case accusing them of applying for million of dollars in federal government loans meant to help small businesses survive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Pembroke Pines attorney Mariel Tollinchi had to post a $250,000 bond, including $50,000 in cash, and wear an electronic ankle bracelet, to gain her release before trial while her liberty and law practice remained in limbo.
But on Friday, Tollinchi, 37, gained her freedom when a federal judge acquitted her of fraud, money laundering and identity theft charges after prosecutors completed their side of the case during a jury trial in Fort Lauderdale. The evidence in the case was so weak that U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith granted her lawyers’ motion for acquittal on all charges before they even put on a defense.
“Intent was the issue at trial, and the government failed to prove any intent on her part to defraud the [pandemic] loan program,” her attorneys, Jessica Duque and Sam Rabin, said Monday after the week-long trial. They called Tollinchi a “victim” of her former fiancé’s deception.
Tollinchi’s legal victory — which kept her from being convicted, going to prison and losing her law license — followed a string of similar outcomes against almost all of the other defendants charged in the $8 million pandemic loan fraud case.
Of the five defendants charged together, only one was sent to prison: Tollinchi’s one-time fiancé, Joff✓ Philossaint. In 2022, he pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to commit fraud and money laundering and was sentenced to more than four years for filing more than two dozen fabricated pandemic loan applications for other people and pocketing a 10% commission fee, according to federal court records.
The Haitian-born Philossaint was also convicted separately of committing fraud when he applied for naturalization to become a U.S. citizen because at the time he lied on a form about committing any crimes, incLuding bilking the government’s pandemic loan programs.
The government’s loss in Tollinchi’s case has been the biggest blemish on its record of prosecutions against hundreds of South Floridians accused of fleecing the Paycheck Protection Program and other loan relief services for struggling businesses during the coronavirus outbreak.
In a recent in-depth article, the Miami Herald showed how everyday people and business scofflaws cashed in on the taxpayer-funded PPP loans — and quickly went shopping. They loaded up on Lamborghinis, Porsches, Teslas and Bentleys and stocked their jewelry boxes with diamond- and gold-studded necklaces, bracelets and watches.
READ MORE: Lambos. Jewels. How ‘easy money’ from Uncle Sam made Miami a feast for PPP fraudsters
By the end of the fiscal year in September, federal prosecutors brought fraud charges against nearly 3,200 defendants nationwide — including about 250 in South Florida, the worst-hit region — for stealing close to $1.7 billion from the PPP and other pandemic loan programs, according to the Justice Department.
But at Tollinchi’s trial, prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office were unable to prove that Tollinchi conspired with her former fiancé, Philossaint, to file falsified applications for PPP and other loans, which were guaranteed by the Small Business Administration after Congress passed the CARES Act in March 2020. Prosecutors accused Tollinchi of fabricating loan applications for four businesses: The Technical Advantage, Ferro’s Entertainment and Production, Perfect Landscaping, and a nonprofit charity, Cinda Foundation. All of the businesses were owned by either her or her parents, according to the indictment.
The loan requests were for a total of $253,865; of that amount, Tollinchi received about $142,000 and her parents the balance, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors claimed that Tollinchi conspired with Philossaint to file bogus applications for the Paycheck Protection Program and the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program, including falsifying business revenues, number of employees, payroll expenses and corporate taxes. The SBA agreed to forgive the loans, which were processed by financial institutions, as long as they were used for payroll and other overhead expenses.
Rabin, a veteran criminal defense attorney, said Tollinchi filed “legitimate” paperwork with her loan applications and tax records but Philossaint “doctored” them to maximize his commission fees — without her knowledge.
“She didn’t see it coming,” Rabin said.
His partner, Duque, said if federal authorities had investigated the case more deeply, they would have discovered that Philossaint and Tollinchi were not in cahoots.
“She was absolutely a victim in all of this,” Duque said.
Tollinchi, who was admitted to the Florida Bar in 2016, was previously in the news when she represented the Crestview Towers Condo Association in North Miami Beach about three years ago. The city ordered the condo owners to evacuate the building temporarily after officials found the aging condo towers unsafe and overdue for a 40-year structural review.
That decision followed the June 24, 2021, collapse of Champlain Towers South in Surfside, where 98 condo owners, renters and visitors were killed in the tragedy.
