Jason Delgado
The legal woes for ousted state banking regulator Ron Rubin continued this week when his attorney, Michael Tein, dropped him as a client.
Tein represented Rubin in three court cases, one of which alleges racketeering, public corruption and abuse of power at the “highest levels” of two state departments: the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) and the Florida Office of Financial Regulation (OFR.)
Rubin – Florida’s former OFR Commissioner – was fired in 2019 by Gov. Ron DeSantis and Cabinet amid reports of sexual harassment and inappropriate workplace comments. Rubin claims, however, he blew the whistle against the wrongdoers, which is why he got fired.
“This week, the same lawyer that had no problem representing Jeffrey Epstein fired Ron Rubin as a client,” said Deputy Chief Financial Officer and spokesperson Frank Collins III. “Ron Rubin was fired by the Florida Cabinet because he sexually harassed employees, and whether he goes through four, five or twelve attorneys, nothing will change the facts of the case.”
Notably, the break up between Tein and Rubin wasn’t mutual.
During a hearing, Rubin told Leon County Circuit Judge John Cooper he wanted to retain Tein as counsel and denied any real problem between the pair.
“I don’t believe there’s a dispute with myself and Mr. Tein,” Rubin explained to the judge.”This is simply, more of a contractual issue than anything. Mr.Tein has been paid an extremely large amount of money to do work by the end of the year and I believe that he has manufactured a dispute for the purposes of withdrawing.”
Cooper approved the pair’s separation behind closed doors, according to court documents.
Tein, who represented Epstein in 2008 when he was accused of violating young girls, declined to speak with Florida Politics on the matter.
Rubin did not respond by the time of publication.
OFR Inspector General Bradley Perry issued a 66-page report in mid-July outlining Rubin’s “sexual harassment and other acts of discrimination” that broke internal and other policies.
The report claimed he indirectly referred to sexual matters, disparaged “rednecks” and bowtie-wearers, and criticized certain OFR employees as being “too old.”
The Governor and Cabinet — Patronis, Attorney General Ashley Moody and Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried — can collectively hire and fire government employees including the OFR Commissioner.
Fried, the sole Democrat in the Cabinet, withheld her vote on the motion to fire Rubin. She cited public notice concerns.
As OFR commissioner, Rubin was paid $166,000 a year to oversee an agency of nearly 360 employees and an operating budget of about $41 million a year.
Rubin previously served as an enforcement attorney for the consumer federal Financial Protection Bureau. He also worked at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Ruben had been a “self-employed freelance writer” for more than three years before taking the OFR job.
