Posted on Wed, Jul. 23, 2003
Flower importers sentenced
BY JANE BUSSEY
[email protected]
A federal judge sentenced two rose peddlers to prison time Tuesday for their roles in a scam that jilted hundreds of florists who waited in vain for the delivery of Valentine's Day flowers.
The sentencing of Scott M. Stanislaw, founder, president and treasurer of Majestic Rose, and his partner and brother-in-law, Michael J. Lananna, closed the book on the rose case.
The fraud began with a message, sent over the floral industry's electronic system, offering discounted roses.
It progressed to the point where the company was not even picking up florists' frantic calls.
While the amount of money involved -- less than $1 million -- was small on the scale of other frauds, the scam against florists nationwide, as well as Ecuadorean rose growers, severely tarnished Miami's image as the flower-import capital of the hemisphere.
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore sentenced Stanislaw to 18 months in prison, but he slapped a 27-month sentence on Lananna, who had run the day-to-day operations at the rose-importing company.
Lananna's sentence was harsher because he allegedly violated the terms of his plea agreement when he was arrested recently for having passed nearly $600 in fraudulent credit-card vouchers to the taxi service for which he'd been working.
Both men were ordered to make restitution of $578,851, about $500,000 of which is expected to be delivered to the court by November.
Stanislaw, who did not speak in court, is to pay the bulk of the money by selling his house and some investment funds, according to the agreement with the U.S. attorney's office.
This final chapter in the case of Majestic Rose comes more than five years after the distributor closed its doors only days before Valentine's Day 1998. It was a move that forced desperate florists to cancel orders or pay top dollar for last-minute rose substitutes.
Ecuadorean growers also struggled to recover from losing thousands of dollars on roses they had shipped to Miami on credit. Stanislaw and Lananna diverted almost $800,000 from the company's bank accounts to their own accounts, then dropped out of sight.
Each pleaded guilty and offered none of the excuses heard five years ago -- from blaming FedEx for the lack of deliveries to telling anxious growers, ``The check is in the mail.''
''I would like to apologize to the court,'' Lananna said as he fought back tears. ``It was just a bad business decision that was made. I've never been in trouble before.''
Some victims, too, had an opportunity to speak out.
Héctor Cuevas, who flew from Ecuador to Miami for the sentencing, told the court that he'd had a hard time keeping his business open since losing the money.
''I can't forget 1998, when I had problems with these men,'' Cuevas said. ``The situation was very difficult for me, for my sons and for my workers, very hard and very sad.''
Added MarÃa Antonieta Puyol de Vega, who represented her family farm and nine other growers: ``It's a very important act of justice that is taking place today. We have waited five years for this justice.''
Prosecutors called the case unusual, noting that, in most instances of fraud, the money is spent and cannot be traced.
''With the amount of fraud that takes place in this area,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Buckner said, ``this district is a hotbed for a whole lot of white-collar crime.''
Flower importers sentenced
BY JANE BUSSEY
[email protected]
A federal judge sentenced two rose peddlers to prison time Tuesday for their roles in a scam that jilted hundreds of florists who waited in vain for the delivery of Valentine's Day flowers.
The sentencing of Scott M. Stanislaw, founder, president and treasurer of Majestic Rose, and his partner and brother-in-law, Michael J. Lananna, closed the book on the rose case.
The fraud began with a message, sent over the floral industry's electronic system, offering discounted roses.
It progressed to the point where the company was not even picking up florists' frantic calls.
While the amount of money involved -- less than $1 million -- was small on the scale of other frauds, the scam against florists nationwide, as well as Ecuadorean rose growers, severely tarnished Miami's image as the flower-import capital of the hemisphere.
U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore sentenced Stanislaw to 18 months in prison, but he slapped a 27-month sentence on Lananna, who had run the day-to-day operations at the rose-importing company.
Lananna's sentence was harsher because he allegedly violated the terms of his plea agreement when he was arrested recently for having passed nearly $600 in fraudulent credit-card vouchers to the taxi service for which he'd been working.
Both men were ordered to make restitution of $578,851, about $500,000 of which is expected to be delivered to the court by November.
Stanislaw, who did not speak in court, is to pay the bulk of the money by selling his house and some investment funds, according to the agreement with the U.S. attorney's office.
This final chapter in the case of Majestic Rose comes more than five years after the distributor closed its doors only days before Valentine's Day 1998. It was a move that forced desperate florists to cancel orders or pay top dollar for last-minute rose substitutes.
Ecuadorean growers also struggled to recover from losing thousands of dollars on roses they had shipped to Miami on credit. Stanislaw and Lananna diverted almost $800,000 from the company's bank accounts to their own accounts, then dropped out of sight.
Each pleaded guilty and offered none of the excuses heard five years ago -- from blaming FedEx for the lack of deliveries to telling anxious growers, ``The check is in the mail.''
''I would like to apologize to the court,'' Lananna said as he fought back tears. ``It was just a bad business decision that was made. I've never been in trouble before.''
Some victims, too, had an opportunity to speak out.
Héctor Cuevas, who flew from Ecuador to Miami for the sentencing, told the court that he'd had a hard time keeping his business open since losing the money.
''I can't forget 1998, when I had problems with these men,'' Cuevas said. ``The situation was very difficult for me, for my sons and for my workers, very hard and very sad.''
Added MarÃa Antonieta Puyol de Vega, who represented her family farm and nine other growers: ``It's a very important act of justice that is taking place today. We have waited five years for this justice.''
Prosecutors called the case unusual, noting that, in most instances of fraud, the money is spent and cannot be traced.
''With the amount of fraud that takes place in this area,'' Assistant U.S. Attorney David M. Buckner said, ``this district is a hotbed for a whole lot of white-collar crime.''