Around the time Miami real estate broker Stephen Manuel Costa pleaded guilty to a federal health care fraud conspiracy charge in 2016, he allegedly received $384,300 from a separate prescription drug racket he was allegedly involved in.
Costa allegedly instructed an accomplice to send the six-figure sum to the seller of the five bedroom house at 7441 Southwest 125th Avenue after he and his wife, Miami dermatologist Annie Gonzalez, bought the residence in July 2015, according to a sixth superseding indictment against the 39-year-old broker unsealed in Miami federal court last month.
Gonzalez is a mini-celebrity with more than 100,000 Instagram followers and makes appearances on a Telemundo weekday morning show.
The South Florida U.S. Attorney’s Office is looking to seize the couple’s property through an asset forfeiture if Costa is convicted for the second time in eight years of being part of a criminal enterprise that resold illegally obtained prescription drugs from Puerto Rico to pharmacies in the continental U.S. His trial is set to begin on Oct. 7.
Costa and his attorney David Howard did not respond to requests for comment.
Failure to disclose
Since his first conviction in 2016, followed by a three-year stint in federal lock-up, Costa has maintained his Florida real estate license. It’s set to expire next year, according to online licensing records. The state does not prohibit felons from being sales associates and brokers, but they are required to self-report their convictions to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation and its Florida Real Estate Commission. Brokers and sales associates who don’t could face a fine, as well as having their license suspended or revoked.
Costa failed to report his conviction to the business and regulation department, which opened an inquiry in May, according to the Miami Herald. Department Spokesperson Kara Lefkowitz did not respond to The Real Deal’s request for comment.
A recent TRD investigation revealed that the state agency has lax enforcement against brokers and agents accused of breaking real estate business rules and regulations.
After pleading guilty in January 2016, Costa surrendered to federal prison authorities in August of the same year, court filings show. He was released in 2019 and placed on three years probation, Federal Bureau of Prisons online records show.
But in 2021 he was ordered to perform 60 hours of community service when he violated his probation after testing positive for cocaine. The same year, Costa was hit with a new federal indictment that charged him with conspiracy to deliver and deal in misbranded drugs, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government, money laundering and other counts.
According to the latest version of the indictment, Costa and his co-conspirators purchased a pharmacy and distribution facility in Puerto Rico that were used to funnel stolen prescription drugs, as well as medications purchased from Medicare patients at a discount. The drugs were repackaged and sold at higher prices in the U.S. between 2014 and 2018, the indictment states.
In July 2015, Costa and his wife, Annie Gonzalez, partially financed the purchase of the five-bedroom house at 7441 Southwest 125th Avenue by obtaining a $479,462 four-year balloon mortgage from the seller, Red Berry Estates, records show. On Jan. 14, 2016, two weeks before pleading guilty in his first federal case, Costa had an alleged accomplice named Jorge Paiz transfer $384,000 from the Puerto Rican pharmacy to Red Berry Estates, the indictment states.
Costa also received three payments from illegally diverted drugs totalling $38,501 in 2017, the indictment states. At the time, Costa was in prison, but the charging document does not explain who received the payments on his behalf.
In 2020, Costa’s wife Gonzalez paid $1.6 million for a three-bedroom house at 6944 Southwest 63rd Avenue in South Miami, records show.
Mysterious ways
In February of last year, Costa, along with Amy Caballero and Perla Valenzuela, two real estate sales associates who obtained their licenses in 2022, formed South Miami-based Scope Realty, a brokerage that handles commercial and residential listings. Three months later, Caballero and Valenzuela were removed as Scope Realty’s managers, leaving Costa as the sole owner, state corporate records show.
Yet, on Scope Realty’s Instagram account and website, Caballero and Valenzuela are identified as the sole co-founders and co-owners of the brokerage. There is no mention of Costa except for a post on Scope Realty’s Instagram account that was recently deleted. It showed a photo of Costa standing between Caballero and Valenzuela. The caption read: “Introducing our powerhouse team, owners Amy Caballero & Perla Valenzuela alongside our broker Stephen with 25+ years of experience…”
Among Scope Realty’s listings are some properties owned by Costa’s relatives. For instance, Scope took credit for handling the sale of a house in Kendall for $2.5 million in December that was owned by Costa’s brother, property appraiser Frank Alexander Costa, an Instagram post shows. Scope is also listing for sale a North Bay Village condo owned by Costa’s in-laws and a rental listing for a Hialeah condominium owned by Costa’s sister.
Caballero told TRD she does not know why her and Valenzuela’s names were removed on Scope Realty’s corporate paperwork. She insisted that Costa was not a co-owner.
“He is just a broker,” she said.
She then denied having knowledge of his previous conviction and current indictment, “I have no idea about that.”
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