Boca restaurateur Tony Bova lands in Scott Rothstein storm

Bova received the Boca Raton Chamber of Commerce's Small Business Leader of the Year award in 2004 (Palm Beach Post archives) The scandal that engulfed the well-known Fort Lauderdale law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler has spilled into the Boca Raton restaurant biz. Tony Bova, 58, a Boca resident and the high-profile owner of a string of area restaurants, counts disgraced attorney and political power broker Scott Rothstein among his partners in at least a half-dozen ventures. And chief among those are Bova Ristorante , Bova’s pride and joy on Boca’s Federal Highway, and the chain Bova Restaurant Group . Bova Ristorante, where older guys with slicked-back hair loved to hook up with women too young for them , mysteriously closed its doors shortly before Rothstein took off for North Africa last month. And no one’s talking. “Tony Bova has no comment at this point,” a spokeswoman said. Bova’s association with Rothstein, who’s believed to be the principal in a $500 million Ponzi scheme and just returned to Florida to face the music, surprised observers. “Tony was a very successful restaurant owner in his own right,” said Tom Prakas , a hospitality-business broker . “I don’t know why he needed Scott Rothstein.” One strange thing regarding Bova and Rothstein is that their businesses last year spent more than $200,000 on political causes, mostly in a heated race across the Palm Beach County line. For more, please look below or click Bova (middle) with Miami Dolphins running back Ronnie Brown (left) last year at Bova Cucina

in Boca Raton (Courtesy www.haute100.com) TLKRJ LLC, a Bova-based company with no apparent purpose and co-owned by Bova and Rothstein, according to state records, poured close to $200,000 into the coffers of Broward Sheriff contender Scott Israel ’s opponents. Incumbent Al Lamberti won the tight race. Lamberti, by the way, had been named sheriff a year earlier by Gov. Charlie Crist after the then-Sheriff Ken Jenne was convicted in a corruption scandal. So happens Lamberti supporter Crist and Rothstein are thisclose , and soon after Jenne was released from a federal prison, he found work with — you guessed it — Rothstein’s firm. (And you thought politicians in Palm Beach County weave a tangled web!) “All of the sudden, we had a guy named Bova from Boca dropping all this money on the race, and no one knew why,” said Israel. “Then we figured out Rothstein was involved and that they wanted Lamberti to win.” The Feds are all over Rothstein’s books this week. There’s no word if they’re interested in Bova’s, whose Bova Cucina in Boca and Bova Prime in Fort Lauderdale are humming along just fine. Meanwhile, the owners of the new Park Avenue BBQ, at the corner of Glades and Dixie in Boca, are wondering what’s next. They’re about to open the brand new restaurant, but the building, which briefly housed a restaurant fronted by Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade , is owned by Rothstein.

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Boca restaurateur Tony Bova lands in Scott Rothstein storm

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