By Dan Christensen, FloridaBulldog.org
Ex-con and disbarred lawyer Adam Kidan has owed the U.S. government $21.7 million, plus interest, in restitution since he and ex-super lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty in 2006 to fraud and conspiracy charges in the $147.5-mllion SunCruz Casinos swindle.
So how, since his release from prison in 2009, has Kidan been able to live a life of luxury? Fly around the country in a private business jet, buy and sell homes and office buildings worth millions of dollars and contribute millions to Republican political candidates, including $868,000 to former President Donald Trump during his current run for president?
The answer: through a web of corporations.
A Miami federal judge awarded those millions to victims named on a list that was not made public, but presumably includes the now-grown sons of SunCruz and Miami Subs founder, Konstantinos “Gus” Boulis – Aristotle and Alexander Hren-Boulis.
Gus Boulis died on Feb. 6, 2001 after he was gunned down in a Mafia hit while driving on Fort Lauderdale’s Miami Road near Port Everglades. The murder came amid a bitter struggle for control of SunCruz.
The Miami U.S. Attorney’s Office handles the enforcement of restitution orders and the distribution of monies collected through its Financial Litigation Unit, also known as FLU. Those court orders act as a lien in favor of the United States against all property owned by a defendant, in this case Kidan and Abramoff.
The office declined to comment when asked how much of the $21.7 million, plus interest, in restitution has been paid off over the years and how much continues to be owed. “The information you are requesting is private,” a spokeswoman said.
Kidan, 60, did not respond to messages left on his cellphone over three days.
KIDAN’S HUGE DEBT
As of June 2018, however, the government filed a notice of lien for that amount against Kidan in Lancaster County, PA, where he was living at the time.
“The Criminal Division will cause judgment lien notices to be recorded in all counties where we are aware the defendant owns or may own property,” says information about the restitution process on the U.S. Attorney General’s website. “The United States is allowed to enforce restitution orders on behalf of the restitution victims.”
“FLU will pursue various means to enforce restitution, as its resources permit, on behalf of identified victims for 20 years from the filing date of the judgment, plus the time period of actual incarceration, or until the death of the defendant,” the website says.
The court entered the $21.7-million judgment on March 29, 2006. Kidan was imprisoned for 31 months.
The court order requires Kidan to pay various percentages of his monthly gross earnings, depending on how much he makes. The restitution rate when gross earnings are above $100,000 is 30 percent.
In March 2019, Kidan co-founded and now runs the privately-held, Delaware based Atlantic Solutions Group, which does business as Empire Workforce Solutions. Empire, whose ownership is not known, is a multi-state temporary staffing service based in Ontario, CA. in suburban Los Angeles. ZoomInfo says it has 170 employees and annual revenues of $62.6 million. Glassdoor reports the company’s senior vice presidents are paid as much as $267,000 per year. Kidan is Empire’s president, according to his LinkedIn page, but his salary is not known.
Delaware records, as is common, do not name any persons associated with Atlantic Solutions Group. California corporate records identify Kidan as Atlantic Solution’s “agent.” No one else is named.
In April 2020, Atlantic Solutions Group applied for and received a COVD-19 pandemic-related Paycheck Protection Program loan for $5,226,627, according to a government website. As with many such government loans, it was later forgiven in its entirety.
OFFICE BUILDINGS, RESIDENCES, A BUSINESS JET
Florida Bulldog has identified a half-dozen residences and commercial properties in three states worth millions of dollars that Kidan has been associated with during the last two years. He also has used a private jet registered to a New York company, Lancaster Travel and Leisure Inc., which lists Kidan as its “agent” and The company’s CEO is Simone “Sam” Palazzolo, a convicted felon and former lawyer who died in February. The names of Palazzolo and Kidan are together on several corporate entities.
One of the most valuable assets associated with Kidan is a 3,140 square foot single-family home in Napa, CA. According to the Napa County Assessor’s Office, the three-bedroom/four-and-a half-bath home at 40 Burning Tree Court was purchased in November 2021 by the single-purpose company 40 Burning Tree Corp. for $2.025 million. Kidan’s name isn’t on property records, but California corporate records identify Kidan as the company’s chief executive.
Kidan is associated with the nearby No Love Lost Wine Company, a store whose website boasts it is “Napa Valley’s premier natural wine producer.” Kidan’s LinkedIn page calls him the company’s “Vintner.”
In Nevada, records show, Kidan has ties to a modest Las Vegas strip mall at 3011 W. Lake Mead Boulevard through a company that uses the property’s address as its name. Tenants include a Domino’s Pizza. 3011 W. Lake Mead Inc., which lists Kidan as president, purchased the parcel in March 2022 for $2.1 million.
Nevada records also show that companies associated with Kidan recently were paid more than $4.5 million for two other real estate holdings. Clark County property records show that in August 2023 – 600 S. Tonopah Inc. sold a two-story, 14,160 square foot office building at 600 S. Tonopah Drive for $2.9 million. Nevada corporate records list Kidan as president of the company and the deed of sale was signed by him as company president. The company purchased the office building 17 months earlier, in March 2022, for $3.5 million, records say.
In March 2024, the Nevada company 8670 Spring Mountain Inc., which lists Kidan as president, sold a second commercial property with that Las Vegas address for $1.62 million. Like 600 S. Tonopah Inc., 8670 Spring Mountain Inc. took a loss, too. It had purchased the commercial property for $1.8 million In February 2022.
Kidan and his family fly in a 1997 Gulfstream G100 twin engine business jet, N520CK, owned by Lancaster Travel and Leisure Inc. Lancaster Travel was incorporated in New York in November 2021, and in Florida in March 2022, before the plane was registered with the FAA in May 2022. The cost to purchase a similar jet is between $1.8 million and $2.5 million today.
FlightAware, a website that provides real-time information about flight traffic, shows that since June 23 the aircraft has made more than three dozen flights, including four trips to Napa County, CA. Kidan’s mother-in-law and wife have posted on social media photographs of themselves with other Kidan family members aboard the Gulfstream jet.
PALM BEACH COUNTY REAL ESTATE
Today, Kidan calls Palm Beach Gardens home. He and his wife, the Cristiani, reside at 5721 Gauguin Terrace. They do not claim a homestead exemption, however.
Records show she bought the new 5-bedroom, 5.5-bath, 5300 square foot home in November 2021, before they were married, for just under $1.9 million. The records also show, however, that to do it she borrowed $2.25 million from Atlantic Solutions Group, which does business as Empire Workforce Solutions where Kidan serves as president.
Less than year later, in October 2022, Atlantic Solutions filed a satisfaction of mortgage with the county clerk, declaring that Cristiani De Fatima Pereira – now Cristiani Kidan – had paid off her mortgage in full. It was signed by company executive Jamie Diaz, who works for several entities that have ties to Kidan.
The same month she bought their home, records state that Cristiani Pereira, using the couple’s address in Lititz PA, founded Cris Realty LLC. On Nov. 5, 2021 Adam Kidan bought Unit 124 at 9355 SW 8th St. in unincorporated Boca Raton for $230,000. Seventeen days later he deeded the condo to Cris Realty for $10.
Two years later, on Nov. 15, 2023, Cris Realty sold the condo for $240,000. The warranty deed transferring the property to its new owner was signed by Adam Kidan, as “manager” of Cris Realty.
What happened to Cris Realty’s founder and lone managing member, Cristiani Pereira, during that transaction? Corporate records show that at 6:42 a.m. on Nov. 14, a Sunday, paperwork was faxed to Florida’s Division of Corporations removing Pereira as manager and adding Adam Kidan in her place. The paperwork was faxed by Kidan’s North Palm Beach law firm, Cohen, Norris, Wolmer, Ray, Telepman, Berkowitz & Cohen.
Further, Pereira’s purported signature on the Nov. 14 document authorizing the manager’s name change does not match Pereira’s signature on the application to marry that she and Kidan signed on Oct. 25, 2023. They were married three days later by Minister Taylor Merrill of Manheim, PA, according to their license to marry. They couple had a lavish wedding ceremony at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in February 2023.
Adam Kidan’s stint as the manager of Cris Realty LLC didn’t last long. On Dec. 4, 2023 the law firm faxed new paperwork to the Division of Corporations that removed Kidan as the LLC’s manager and restored Pereira to the job.
Cris Realty currently owns another condo in Palm Beach Gardens, where Pereira’s mother lives. That condo, on Cypress Point Drive, was purchased for $287,500 in September 2021.
WHERE IS U.S. ATTORNEY’S OFFICE?
From November 2021 through May 2022, entities associated with Kidan bought the Napa, CA residence; completely financed the purchase of the Palm Beach Gardens home where he and his wife now reside; and bought the trio of Nevada properties – the Las Vegas strip mall, office building and the commercial property at 8670 Spring Mountain Road that were sold in March of this year.
Further, Adam Kidan is identified online as the chairman of Palm Beach International Airport-based Empire Aviation USA, an aircraft repair and maintenance company. Curiously, Kidan’s name is nowhere to be found on the company’s corporate paperwork, although the company’s original address was at 27 Lemon St., Lancaster, PA – an address used a number of times as a location for entities Kidan is associated with.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office has been critical of the Department of Justice’s restitution collection efforts. “While the DOJ has delegated collection activities to USAOs [U.S. Attorney Offices], it could provide better oversight to ensure it is making reasonable efforts to collect restitution and meeting its responsibility to victims,” it concluded in a 2018 report.
Virginia attorney David S. Smith is a leading expert on restitution and forfeiture. He says the government continues to be “hit or miss” about collecting restitution and distributing it to victims.
“I do a lot of restitution collection,” he said. “Most of the time the debtor is forgotten about for many years…A lot of times the debtor is paying a small amount of money a month, but in the meantime he’s back on his feet and worth millions, and because the government hasn’t been in touch with the person, he’s happy to keep paying $200 a month, which was all he could afford when he was released.”
Failure to pay restitution that is owed can lead to a contempt of court charge. Persons who “knowingly and fraudulently” conceal assets “from a custodian, trustee, marshal or other officer of the court charged with the control or custody of property” also face the prospect of up to five years in prison.
FLUs periodically require those who owe restitution to complete, under penalty of perjury, detailed financial statements that inquire about their real estate holdings, businesses and other assets. The principal purpose is to determine the person’s ability to pay and can result in adjustments up or down. But the forms can also be used to prosecute a perjury charge.
“Even if you’re paying restitution, you could still run into criminal trouble if you hide various assets that you have an obligation to reveal to the FLU,” said attorney Smith.
While the U.S. clearly has the authority to seize a restitution debtor’s real estate and other assets, less certain is whether it could seek to claw back money a debtor contributed to political committees or candidates.
“The money is usually gone. It was spent. I’ve never heard of any effort to claw back like that. It seems it would raise all kinds of problems,” said Smith. “Could it be done? I suppose they could if money is still available.
“It would make an interesting case.”
Leave a Reply