Michael Stern pleads guilty to fraud charges

Miami Beach developer Michael Stern and  one-time government informant is facing up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine after pleading guilty to defrauding Indianapolis Colts linebacker Dwight Freeney out of nearly $3 million, the trade magazine Law360 first reported.

However, Stern’s plea agreement calls for prosecutors to seek no more than a four-year sentence and to request that he pay no more than $3 million in restitution to Freeney.

Stern allegedly obtained a Wells Fargo debit card connected to Freeney’s company, Roof Group LLC, and during the period from July 2011 to August 2012 wired money from Freeney’s account to his own bank account.

Moreover, in In March 2012, Stern was recorded by a confidential FBI informant instructing the informant to destroy a computer hard drive which held incriminating information.

Stern allegedly used the money to fund a luxurious lifestyle, including the $700,000 purchase of a private airplane. –-Christopher Cameron