Charlie Horse: Wellington Site of Latest Palm Beach County Investment Crisis

By Thomas Francis Mon., Jul. 27 2009 at 7:03 AM

Categories: Business, Palm Beach

Photo by bruceddyck

The Joe Zada story had been inching along until a lawsuit filed last week by retired NHL star Sergei Fedorov gave it some celebrity juice. The former All-Star forward for the Detroit Red Wings accused Zada of screwing him out of a $43 million investment. When he met Fedorov, Zada lived in one of Detroit's most exclusive suburbs, but he spent half his time in South Florida, at a palatial estate in Wellington.

Journalist Diana DeRosa has been tracking the Zada case for months, posting articles about him and his investors on an Atlanta-based horse enthusiast networking site, centralequine.com. It appears she's collaborating with a documentary maker, Ron Davis, who counts himself among Zada's victims, to make a film with the working title Riches to Rags. Here's DeRosa's most recent article, which appears to have been written before the filing of Fedorov's suit.

DeRosa's articles circulated quickly in the equestrian community, and in April, Zada himself launched a website, zadaresponds.com, to combat what he said were false allegations. He hasn't made a post since mid-July, and now it appears that his lawyer's doing all the talking.