{"id":322872,"date":"2026-06-28T22:53:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T22:53:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/322872\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T22:53:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T22:53:09","slug":"fraud-case-linked-to-fake-florida-marijuana-company-dismissed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/322872\/","title":{"rendered":"Fraud case linked to fake Florida marijuana company dismissed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe Palm Beach County State Attorney\u2019s Office dismissed a case against a man accused of fraud.According to court documents, the state attorney\u2019s office entered an &#8220;administrative nolle prosse&#8221; or administrative dismissal of an organized scheme to defraud of more than $50,000 charge against Michael B. Segal, 79, on May 26 because Segal died.\u201cBased on the facts, age of case and death of the defendant, there will be a lack of procedural activity for this case of more than 5 years. Therefore the State enters this Administrative Nolle Prosse,\u201d the state attorney\u2019s office said in the court filing.Segal was arrested on Sept. 17, 2025, and had been in law enforcement custody ever since.Court records note that during a May 20, 2026, court hearing, Segal was not present, but in custody at a hospital.Your neighborhood: Local coverage from WPBF 25 NewsA motion for a compassionate release by Segal\u2019s defense attorney was denied by the court on May 20.At the time of his arrest, court documents listed his name as Michael Winston at age 69, but a spokesperson for the state attorney\u2019s office told WPBF 25 News on June 23, 2026, that Michael B. Segal was his real name. Michael Winston was an alias or a fake name, while the date of birth on the arrest report was also inaccurate.According to court documents, Segal was accused of convincing multiple people, mainly in Boca Raton, to invest thousands of dollars in shares of stock in a fake marijuana business between 2017 and 2019.The victims had the expectation they would receive a return on their investments. During the scheme, most of the victims were not paid by Segal.Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it here.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tWEST PALM BEACH, Fla. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The Palm Beach County State Attorney\u2019s Office dismissed a case against a man accused of fraud.<\/p>\n<p>According to court documents, the state attorney\u2019s office entered an &#8220;administrative nolle prosse&#8221; or administrative dismissal of an organized scheme to defraud of more than $50,000 charge against Michael B. Segal, 79, on May 26 because Segal died.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBased on the facts, age of case and death of the defendant, there will be a lack of procedural activity for this case of more than 5 years. Therefore the State enters this Administrative Nolle Prosse,\u201d the state attorney\u2019s office said in the court filing.<\/p>\n<p>Segal was arrested on Sept. 17, 2025, and had been in law enforcement custody ever since.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\" aspect-ratio-original lazyload lazyload-in-view\" alt=\"Michael B. Segal, also known as michael winston\" title=\"Michael B. Segal, AKA Michael Winston\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/michael-winston-68cc9c0821537.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tPalm Beach County Sheriff&#8217;s Office\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael B. Segal<\/p>\n<p>Court records note that during a May 20, 2026, court hearing, Segal was not present, but in custody at a hospital.<\/p>\n<p>Your neighborhood: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/local-news\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Local coverage from WPBF 25 News<\/a><\/p>\n<p>A motion for a compassionate release by Segal\u2019s defense attorney was denied by the court on May 20.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of his arrest, court documents listed his name as Michael Winston at age 69, but a spokesperson for the state attorney\u2019s office told WPBF 25 News on June 23, 2026, that Michael B. Segal was his real name. <\/p>\n<p>Michael Winston was an alias or a fake name, while the date of birth on the arrest report was also inaccurate.<\/p>\n<p>According to court documents, Segal was accused of convincing multiple people, mainly in Boca Raton, to invest thousands of dollars in shares of stock in a fake marijuana business between 2017 and 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The victims had the expectation they would receive a return on their investments. During the scheme, most of the victims were not paid by Segal.<\/p>\n<p>Get the latest news updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/article\/get-wpbf-25-news-on-the-go\/999316\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Palm Beach County State Attorney\u2019s Office dismissed a case against a man accused of fraud.According to court&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":322873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[133760,20067,692,21094,5507,133757,28,30,29,98468,133755,7938,133759,133758,7334,660,133756,6272,189],"class_list":["post-322872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-administrative-nolle-prosse","tag-age","tag-arrest","tag-court-document","tag-death","tag-fake-marijuana-company","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-fraud-case","tag-fraud-case-dismissed-in-palm-beach-county-after-defendants-death","tag-may","tag-michael-b-segal","tag-michael-winston","tag-name","tag-office","tag-segal","tag-state-attorney","tag-wpbf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=322872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/322872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/322873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=322872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=322872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=322872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}