It is uncertain whether Florida attorney Timothy McCabe is a “missing person,” but it is certain that more than $6 million is missing from the accounts of the law firm at which he is a partner. The South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports that McCabe, a partner at McCabe and Samiljan LLC was reported missing on April 5 by his wife Donna at the same time that a significant portion of his law firm’s trust accounts were discovered to be gone.
McCabe, who is a founding partner of a Boca Raton-based real estate firm, was believed to be leaving for a business trip in Tampa and Orlando on April 2, the day he was last seen. On April 5, McCabe called his friend and said, “This is the last time we talk,” which worried both the friend and Donna McCabe, who filed a missing persons report with the Palm Beach County Sherriff’s Office. Law enforcement determined that there was nothing suspicious about McCabe’s disappearance, and that he was of a sound mind and acting of his own free will when he left and in no danger.
Upon checking his cellular telephone records, authorities determined that the mysterious phone call from McCabe was made from South Carolina.
April 5 was also the day that McCabe’s business partner, Steve Samiljan, announced that approximately $6 million was missing from the law firm’s trust. Samiljan told the Sun-Sentinel that since the money has gone missing, he’s spent most of his time reassuring his clients. The sheriff’s office is also investigating the missing money, but has not officially connected it to McCabe’s disappearance.
A friend of McCabe, Shane Santacroce, told the Sun-Sentinel that prior to his disappearance, McCabe sent an email to close friends and family, in which he admitted that he made several bad financial decisions, and that he was in the process of attempting to fix his mistakes.
In the last year, the law firm of McCabe and Samiljan, LLC, has been subjected to three Better Business Bureau complaints, and several clients have reported asking for a refund. In December, TD Bank filed a court notice intending to foreclose on the law firm’s office in Lake Worth. And on March 28, five days before McCabe was last seen, a home jointly owned by Timothy and Donna McCabe was transferred solely to Donna.
Donna McCabe has refused to speak with reporters about her husband’s disappearance, but her father, Mitch Zogby, told the Sun-Sentinel that the McCabe’s immediate family was too distraught to make a comment.
Though police are not investigating McCabe’s disappearance, since he seemingly left of his own volition, they will certainly have questions for him if he is linked to the missing $6 million.
