Samir Cabrera is now a free man

Mr. Cabrerea and I convinced the jury that they should not convict him of scheme to defraud of money.  The news report from NBC-2 is as follows:

Samir Cabrera free, won't face re-trial

LEE COUNTY, FL -

Former real estate broker Samir Cabrera is a free man. A federal judge ruled federal prosecutors cannot retry Cabrera on fraud and money laundering charges because it would violate his Fifth Amendment rights.

The 20-page ruling says a retrial would constitute double jeopardy because there is insufficient evidence to retry him on the original charges.

Originally, Cabrera was convicted six counts of wire fraud and five charges of money laundering.

The wire fraud had two elements: scheme to defraud investors of money and scheme to defraud investors of the intangible right to honest services.

In the jury verdict form, the jury only convicted Cabrera of scheme to defraud the intangible right to honest services. [View the verdict forms]

In June 2010, the US Supreme Court ruled the intangible right to honest services was only applicable if there was bribery or kickbacks involved.

After the ruling, the prosecution asked for the conviction to be vacated so he could be retried.

Monday's ruling states the prosecution cannot retry Cabrera on the honest services charges because there was insufficient evidence to support a conviction on those charges in light of the Supreme Court decision.

The decision also states the jury acquitted Cabrera on the scheme to defraud investors of money, therefore an attempt at retrying him on any of the wire services fraud charges would be double jeopardy.

Cabrera will no longer be subject to supervised release and will not have to report for random drug testing or any other restrictions set by the court.