Adelson family had 'piles' of cash and millions in the bank when Dan Markel was murdered

Donna Adelson, who was nabbed by the FBI trying to board a one-way flight to Vietnam before charges were filed against her in the murder of Dan Markel, had plenty of money to start a new life in a non-extradition country.

She and her husband, Harvey Adelson, a retired dentist with a once lucrative practice in Tamarac, their son, Charlie Adelson, a well-to-do traveling periodontist, and their daughter, Wendi Adelson, an attorney, had millions of dollars between them in checking, savings and investment accounts.

That doesn’t include the “piles” of cash that Donna and Harvey Adelson kept in a safe or the $100,000-plus dollars in stapled bills that Charlie Adelson forked over to his ex-girlfriend and two hit men.

Markel, a Florida State law professor who shared two sons with Wendi Adelson, his ex-wife, was fatally shot in the head at point-blank range in his Trescott Drive garage the morning of July 18, 2014.

Over the ensuing days, months and years, investigators traced the crime to the hit men, Luis Rivera, a Latin Kings gang leader, and his friend, Sigfredo Garcia, and Katie Magbanua, who was dating Charlie Adelson and had two kids with Garcia.

The trail ultimately led to Charlie Adelson, who was found guilty of first-degree murder, conspiracy and solicitation on Nov. 6 after an eight-day trial, and his mom, who was arrested a week later on the same charges. The Adelsons, prosecutors have long said, hated Markel and wanted him out of the way so Wendi Adelson could move back to Miami with the kids.

Charlie Adelson, who is being held in the Leon County Detention Facility while he awaits sentencing, spoke to his mom multiple times in monitored calls after he was found guilty in the nearly decade-old murder plot.

According to court documents, Donna Adelson said on the calls that she was “getting things in order,” creating trusts and making sure the grandchildren would be “taken care of.”

She also talked of possible suicide or flight to a country with no U.S. extradition treaty. Investigators said in her arrest report that she had “considerable financial resources” to make the latter a reality.

‘I liked the feeling of looking at it’: Charlie Adelson testified about his fondness for collecting cash

Charlie Adelson, whose life in South Florida intersected with both the upper crust and the criminal element, testified in his trial about his upbringing in Coral Springs, where his dad worked as a general dentist and his mom as an occasional substitute teacher.

“I’d say it was upper middle class,” he said under direct questioning from his lawyer, Dan Rashbaum. “In 1992, my dad lost a lot of money and then wasn’t upper middle class after that. And then my dad worked hard and he worked until he was 78 and retired.”

After graduating from dental school and finishing his residency in 2006 at Nova Southeastern University, Charlie Adelson said he owed $200,000 in student debt.

He began working as a traveling periodontist at several dozen different dental offices across South Florida. He also joined his dad’s dental practice, which was renamed the Adelson Institute for Implants and Aesthetic Surgery.

In 2012, Charlie Adelson bought the practice from his dad, who wanted to “slow down,” he testified. But three years later, he sold it back to his father, who was still working there. Harvey Adelson sold the practice two years ago when he retired.

Charlie Adelson testified that he had always been fond of collecting cash, which he kept stapled together in $1,000 stacks.

“It probably goes back to when I was a kid,” he said. “I’d get a dollar a week allowance and I would save it up. And I just liked the feeling of looking at it. I’d rather look at it than put it in the bank.”

Adelson testified he had $138,000 in stapled bills in his safe the night of the murder, which he handed over to Magbanua after she told him that people she knew had killed Markel and were demanding he pay up or be offed himself. He said that in all the years after the murder, he never went to the police with the “extortion” threat because he was too afraid, though the jury appeared to have roundly rejected that story.

He told jurors that by 2011, he was making about $350,000 a year and that by 2014, he was pulling in between $850,000 and $900,000. He said his best earning years were 2013, 2014, the year of the murder, and 2015.

Adelson family had more than $8 million combined at the time of the murder nine-plus years ago

However, a state financial investigator who testified earlier for the prosecution, said Charlie Adelson’s income was well over the six figures he described on the stand.

Mary Hull, a forensic accountant and certified fraud examiner who pored over the Adelson family’s finances, testified that Charlie Adelson earned millions each year between 2013 and 2016. The money came from his traveling periodontist business, the Adelson Institute, which grossed about $2 million a year, and other sources.

“It varied between $3 (million) and $3.5 million, according to his bank records that I had,” Hull said under direct questioning by Assistant State Attorney Sarah Kathryn Dugan. “He also had some rental income and some land sales.”

Hull told jurors the Adelsons – Donna, Harvey, Charlie and Wendi – had a total of 32 individual checking, savings, business and investment accounts.

Between Jan. 1, 2013, and late 2016, the family’s 20-plus investment accounts grew from $4.1 million to more than $5.8 million. In July 2014, the month of the murder, their collective balances totaled $8.1 million.

“And that’s just money in the bank, right?” Dugan asked. “That doesn’t include real estate, cars, other assets? Or cash of theirs that they never put in the bank in the first place?”

“Correct,” Hull said.

Adelsons moved 'large amounts of cash' from one pile to another in their safe

Hull testified that the Adelson Institute gave discounts to patients who paid in cash rather than with plastic. She also verified a 2012 message from Harvey Adelson to his son about a $26,000 “gift” in cash.

“There is no tax advantage for the $26K gift, except I have too much cash and would rather have you transfer from your personal account,” the elder Adelson said.

In July 2011, three years before the murder, Donna Adelson texted her son saying she needed to take $25,000 from his office checkbook and put it in Harvey Adelson’s office checkbook “in order to break even this month.”

“Do you have enough money in your office account for us to write that check?” Donna Adelson asked. “If you do then dad will move $25,000 in cash in the safe into your pile.”

Charlie Adelson texted her back: “No problem.”

“So they’re talking about moving large amounts of cash from one person’s pile to another person’s pile in a safe?” Dugan asked. “And this safe would be at a place where Donna Adelson and Harvey Adelson are in control of it?”

“I believe so,” Hull said.

The Adelsons could face wrongful death lawsuit in Markel murder

It’s unclear what the Adelson family’s current financial picture looks like or how much their wealth has been drained by expensive lawyers. Donna and Harvey Adelson, Charlie Adelson and Wendi Adelson all have their own private attorneys who have represented them throughout the investigation.

Charlie Adelson hired Rashbaum, a prominent Miami lawyer and former federal prosecutor, in hopes of getting him off the hook. He also brought in Josh Dubin, president of the New York-based Dubin Research & Consulting, which specializes in jury selection and trial strategy.

Also unknown is whether Markel’s family will file a wrongful death lawsuit against the Adelsons. Ruth Markel, Dan Markel’s mom, declined to comment on the topic.

Under Florida law, the statute of limitations for a wrongful death lawsuit is generally two years unless it involves certain intentional torts, including murder, in which case an action "may be commenced at any time."

Hal Lewis III, a Tallahassee civil trial lawyer, said Charlie Adelson’s lawyers would be “hard-pressed” to convince a court that a lawsuit should have been filed sooner “when he was vehemently denying any involvement in the murder during that entire time period."

“Knowing this family situation, I would be shocked if the Markel family does not sue Dr. Adelson,” Lewis said. “Having said that, he has had more than enough time to shift or hide assets around to where they may be undiscoverable. This was hinted at by Donna Adelson in the recent recorded phone calls.”

Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Donna and Adelson family net worth: 'Piles' of cash, millions in bank