Sonja Isger
Palm Beach Post
A 23-year-old who only 15 months ago completed a prison sentence for practicing medicine without a license as a teen has once again stepped afoul of the law, authorities say.
This time investigators contend Malachi Love-Robinson stole more than $10,000 from his latest employer, a Delray Beach-based shipping company, diverting most of that sum directly from customers to his private accounts, according to his arrest report.
Love-Robinson was booked into the Palm Beach County Jail on Thursday morning and was released on bail 11 hours later. He faces charges of grand theft and fraud.
The owner of United States of Freight, Daniel O’Sullivan, alerted police to his suspicions in March.
The company serves as a broker, connecting shippers to transport companies for a fee. Customers are supposed to pay the company directly, and then the company pays the carriers, while retaining that fee and paying a commission to the employee who handled the order.
Love-Robinson was one of those employees. But, according to police, he created dummy accounts and directed five unwitting clients to pay directly into them.
One client wired money to a SunTrust Bank account bearing the name National Logistics Division LLC, a business registered to Love-Robinson that uses his home address in Lake Park, police reported.
Other clients sent their money via PayPal or Venmo to other accounts held by Love-Robinson, they said. In all, police calculated that roughly $9,430 was diverted.
O’Sullivan told police Love-Robinson also collected about $700 in commissions on the transactions, which all happened in January 2020.
In the course of their investigation, police tried and failed to contact Love-Robinson, according to the arrest report. But O’Sullivan provided screenshots of text messages from the young man which indicated he knew he’d gotten himself in trouble and “can’t say how truly sorry he is,” the report said.
In the messages, Love-Robinson says he will pay back the money and “is doing everything (he) can to make it right,” the report said. He also texted, “I don’t want to go to jail.”
“Dr. Love” sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison
Love-Robinson last stepped out of prison in September 2019.
His arrest three years earlier grabbed national headlines, when authorities alleged he was unlawfully practicing medicine out of a West Palm Beach office on 45th Street.
Authorities said Love-Robinson, then 18, conducted a physical exam on, and gave medical advice to, an undercover officer. Meanwhile, in a separate case, he was accused of defrauding an elderly woman of nearly $35,000 after he examined her for stomach pain.
He denied posing as a doctor and argued he was practicing alternative medicine with appropriate certification. Authorities said his practice was called New Birth New Life Holistic and Alternative Medical Center and Urgent Care.
Love-Robinson was eventually sentenced to 3 1/2 years after pleading guilty to practicing medicine without a license, grand theft and fraud. He was credited for 483 days spent in jail before sentencing and then served 20 months in prison, according to Florida Department of Corrections records.
Between his local arrest and that sentencing, Love-Robinson did time in a Virginia prison.
Authorities there said he provided false information when trying to buy a car in September 2016. Authorities reported that he claimed an older woman with him was there to co-sign a loan on the vehicle, but she denied knowing anything about that.
He first caught authorities’ attention in 2015, when police investigated the then-17-year-old for posing as a doctor at St. Mary’s Medical Center. Investigators said he roamed the hospital wearing a coat and stethoscope. But he didn’t enter patient rooms or render medical treatment and no charges were filed.
@sonjaisger
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