Jan.02, 2010, at 2:03 p.m. From: naplesnews.com

Samir Cabrera is three months into a 10-year sentence.

Cabrera, a high-profile Fort Myers real estate deal-maker convicted of fraud and money-laundering in 2009, spent the holidays in a prison in Pensacola.

The 33-year-old Cabrera, found guilty of 11 counts in federal court in Fort Myers, has been housed at the Federal Prison Camp at Pensacola since October.

There, he lives dormitory style with a room full of other minimum-security inmates.

Prison officials won’t discuss individual inmates or their activities while incarcerated, but said inmates are expected to work eight-hour days for between 12 cents and 40 cents per hour.

Cabrera was a fast-rising young businessman riding the expanding real estate bubble until the lawsuits started piling up. Investors accused him of fraud, claiming he used their money to flip properties between his own investment groups and pocketed the money. He was indicted in June 2008.

Cabrera’s illegal activity also helped bring down his father-in-law, Don Stilwell, the longest-serving county manager in Lee County history.

Cabrera is married to Stilwell’s daughter, Jessica, a former TV news anchor in Southwest Florida.

Warren Williams, himself a former Realtor, said it’s a shame to see anyone -- especially a young family man -- in prison for the holidays.

“But if he’s a professional, he knew better,” Williams said. “It may be tempting, but you see how it can end.”

Stilwell’s connections to his son-in-law first became an issue when Commissioner Brian Bigelow raised it at a County Commission meeting in July 2008, a month after his son-in-law was arrested.

Cabrera was under indictment at the time, and commissioners were discussing routing a road through an area where he owned property.

Stilwell had loaned his son-in-law money on other land.

Bigelow accused Stilwell of lying to commissioners, who ordered an investigation. Stilwell was cleared.

However, it wasn’t his land investments that brought down Stilwell, the longest-serving top boss in Lee County history. It was dirty e-mails.

Things started to unravel for Stilwell on March 4 when the FBI requested copies of e-mails of top county leaders. The agency still won’t say what it was looking for, except to say it’s still looking. When reporters started sifting through the thousands of e-mails they found lurid photos the county manager had received and passed along on his county computer.

Facing an ultimatum, Stilwell resigned his $248,000 a year job on May 4. He took with him $153,000 in severance.

He applied for the county manager job in Broward County, but didn’t get an interview. He’s now one of the candidates to be the new town manager at Fort Myers Beach.

He’d dipped into his retirement to help his son-in-law, and has since faced foreclosure on at least two investment properties. He filed for unemployment even before his resignation was accepted, and even received two weekly payments.

The county challenged him, however, and his most recent appeal was denied Dec. 9.

County Attorney David Owen said Stilwell has 30 days from then to appeal in court.