A federal jury took four hours to clear a Miami jewelry supplier and his sales
manager of charges they laundered more than $8 million in cocaine profits for
Colombian drug lords.
After Thursday's verdicts, jurors emerged from the Miami courthouse to find
defendant Raphael Adouth, his family and members of his Bal Harbour synagogue
rejoicing and dancing on the courthouse steps. They joined in with warm
embraces.
"It was sweet," said defense attorney Howard Srebnick.
Adouth and Lourdes Challiol were accused in an indictment last year of
meeting with two dozen cocaine traffickers who exchanged drug money for gold,
exporting it to Colombia.
Adouth took over Rosenthal Jewelers Supply Corp. after the 1987 death of his
grandfather, a Jewish watchmaker who emigrated from Hungary to Havana to Miami.
The jewelry supply business, one of the nation's largest, also was acquitted of
money laundering charges.
The acquittals capped a three-week trial featuring some of Miami's top
criminal defense attorneys, who vigorously attacked the motives and veracity of
an undercover Internal Revenue Service operative.
The defense alleged that anti-Semitism drove the investigation, telling
jurors Adouth was referred to on surveillance tapes as "the Jew." The
investigation itself was dubbed "Operation Goldstar," which defense
attorneys said rekindled memories of how the Nazis forced Jews to wear gold
stars.
Adouth was represented by Srebnick and his partner, Roy Black, and Challiol
by Jane Moscowitz. Mark Schnapp and Stephen Binhak defended the company.
A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office had no comment.
Copyright (c) 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel
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