MIAMI – A Tunisian woman who Miami police say stole her ex-boyfriend’s American Express card and spent $4,200 on an Airbnb is also being investigated as a suspect in the theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of cryptocurrency.
According to an arrest report, Anthony Bravo went to Miami police headquarters on Feb. 12 to report that he woke up on Feb. 9 to find that his ex-girlfriend of six months, Maissa Jebali, was no longer in the yacht where they both lived. Police said he then checked his crypto wallet and found that $800,000 worth of his “Trump coin” had been sent to a wallet that didn’t belong to him.
Bravo, 26, then found the Amex charge, police said, and received notifications that his card was being used throughout Miami-Dade County. The two had fought beforehand.
“When I woke up she was gone, she was just gone,” Bravo told Local 10 News.
The report states that Bravo hired private investigator David Bolton, who tracked down Jebali on Valentine’s Day to the Yotel at 227 NE Second St. in downtown Miami. Bolton discovered that Jebali has overstayed her visa.
Police said they went to the hotel about 30 minutes later and saw Jebali, 22, sitting at the bar, later questioning her about the case in private.
“That loser is my ex-boyfriend,” police said Jebali told detectives. “He lets me use his credit card.”
Bravo said being called a “loser,” on top of being a crime victim, “made me feel horrible.”
“I loved her with all my heart,” he said. “I did everything I could to be there for her.”
He said he met Jebali at a marina about six months ago and said she expressed an interest in learning about crypto.
At this point, she hasn’t been charged in connection with the crypto theft, Bravo said, though police are investigating.
“I was able to identify her address and it was the same address used to transfer my trump coins into her phantom wallet,” Bravo said.
Jebali is now in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Bravo and Bolton are worried that she’ll be deported before police complete their investigation.
“The concern is that we are giving her a free ticket from the U.S. government back to Tunisia with $850,000 in her pocket,” Bolton said. “I think this was a long-term plan from someone very sophisticated who targeted him because he’s wealthy.”
Jebali is facing two felony counts of grand theft and fraudulent use of a credit card.