North Miami Beach city attorney resigns amid tensions over mayor’s residency
North Miami Beach City Attorney Hans Ottinot resigned Thursday evening following months of tensions with the commission after raising questions about the mayor’s residency.
Ottinot submitted his resignation after attending a workshop discussing agenda items for the next commission meeting held by members of the city commission.
“While the end of our tenure in the City of
North Miami Beach has been marred by unfair political attacks because of our adherence to the law, we nevertheless believe that our services as below contributed to the progress in the city,” Ottinot wrote in a four-page letter before touting his accomplishments with the city.
His resignation went into effect 5 p.m. Friday, following a months-long tug-of-war among commissioners regarding Mayor Anthony DeFillipo’s residency. Ottinot had hired an outside firm to investigate allegations that DeFillipo lived in the town of Davie.
DeFillipo has repeatedly said he has a permanent residence in North Miami Beach.
Ottinot said in his letter he followed the law and city precedent when investigating DeFillipo.
Three of the commissioners had refused to attend commission meetings while DeFillipo presided over them. Because of that, the commission has not met with a full quorum since October. A MiamiDade Circuit Court judge ordered the three commissioners to attend the next meeting on
March 21.
Michael Pizzi, the attorney representing DeFillipo, said his client was “pleasantly surprised” that Ottinot resigned. DeFillipo had previously sought to fire Ottinot.
“It is our hope that this is the beginning of a healing process where the city commission can finally meet after the several month hiatus and start to concentrate on the people’s business,” Pizzi said.
Raisa Habersham: @newsworthy17
promised,” the warrant said.
The warrant also detailed the eight WhatsApp messages to clients, identified only by initials, that prosecutors say were fraudulent claims:
Sept. 28, 2020: Crawford told investor A.M. he would guarantee the return of A.M.’s $100,000 investment for stock trading by Oct. 15, 2020, and take a 5% commission.
Oct. 1, 2020: Crawford told A.M. “I am literally a licensed stock broker.” An online check of licensed U.S. stockbrokers says that’s, literally, a lie.
Oct. 16, 2020: Crawford sent A.M. a screenshot of a supposed pending check payment to A.M.
Aug. 2, 2021: Crawford told investor S.A. if S.A. sent him a second investment of $100,000 worth of cryptocurrency Ethereum or “ETH,” he would invest $100,000 in stocks and another $100,000 in crypto “with a return of $1.7 million by Aug. 6, 2021.”
AAAAAug. 6, 2021: Crawford sent S.A. a screenshot of an email “purporting to show a pending transfer of $198,000” to S.A.
Oct. 13, 2021: Crawford said he’d give investor D.G. $100,000 in three days for each ETH.
Oct. 13, 2021: Crawford sent D.G. a screenshot that falsely showed $18.9 million in gains.
Oct. 19, 2021: Crawford sent D.G. a screenshot that claims “pending transfers of $800,000 and $500,000 in Canadian dollars to D.G.
This case was investigated by the Miami-Dade police’s cyber crimes unit, the Miami offices of the FBI and U.S. Secret Service with help from the Florida Office of Financial Regulation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hauser out of the Miami office is leading the prosecution.
AAAADavid J. Neal: 305-376-3559, @DavidJNeal