Eric Bustillo has arguably seen more fraud committed by more people than anyone else in South Florida.
He has investigated and prosecuted hundreds of scoundrels, including a University of Miami booster and Ponzi schemer who hawked bogus investments in a grocery business as well as a Fort Lauderdale company that sold billions of dollars in dubious life insurance policies belonging to people with AIDS.
But after a combined 35 years as the director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Miami office and as a senior federal prosecutor at the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Bustillo has decided to step down and slow down. What made his rise to the top of Miami’s legal field so striking is that he overcame a personal tragedy as a young college student to reach that height…