FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Defense attorneys for a group of Florida fortunetellers suspected of a $40 million fraud have accused federal agents of misconduct and bias, court records show.
Lawyers for Rose Marks and several family members and associates claim to have evidence some of the victims of the alleged fraud were improperly pressured by prosecution investigators who allegedly hinted they could face Internal Revenue Service audits or other unwelcome attention, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported Thursday.
"The defense has been alerted to significant inconsistencies between what the government has represented as 'victim' testimony and what actually occurred, to a pattern of threats, promises and intimidation of witnesses by government agents, and a biased investigation," said Fred Schwartz, the lawyer for Rose Marks who is leading the defense team.
Prosecutors said some of the alleged victims were embarrassed, and some were initially unwilling to accept that they had been defrauded.
The defense accused federal authorities of showing bias toward the Fort Lauderdale Romani fortunetellers by calling them "gypsies" in court.
"The government felt free enough in open court to repeatedly use the ethnic slur 'gypsy' to unfairly demean and negatively stereotype the defendants here," Marks said.
