Ex-Miami real estate broker Stephen Manuel Costa is going to federal lock-up for his role in orchestrating a $78 million illegal prescription drug racket. Costa and his wife Annie Gonzalez, a Miami dermatologist with a regular segment on a Telemundo morning show, must also forfeit their five-bedroom house in Kendall as part of Costa’s conviction on two conspiracy counts.
On July 16, U.S. District Judge Darrin P. Gayles sentenced Costa to 14 years, court records show. Federal prosecutors charged the 40-year-old Costa for masterminding a scheme to sell illegally obtained prescription drugs from Puerto Rico to pharmacies in the continental U.S. at marked-up prices. Costa was sentenced for a crime spree that began in the early 2010s and resumed following his release from a three-year sentence in 2019 on similar charges. He’d been a broker since 2003.
His attorney David Howard did not respond to requests for comment.
In November, Costa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic in medical products with false documentation and conspiracy to commit money laundering. He has to surrender himself to the Federal Bureau of Prisons by Aug. 15, court records show.
In addition to his prison time, the federal government is seizing his home at 7441 Southwest 125th Avenue in unincorporated southwest Miami-Dade County. Costa and Gonzalez bought the property for $865,300 in 2015. The couple financed the purchase with a balloon mortgage from the seller, Red Berry Estates.
A year later, Costa allegedly instructed an accomplice to wire $384,300 in illegal prescription drug proceeds to Red Berry, according to a sixth superseding indictment filed in July 2024. The home has a current market value of $1.7 million, according to Zillow.
Costa did not self-report his 2016 federal conviction to the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulation (DBPR) and the Florida Real Estate Commission as required by law, state records show. An investigation by The Real Deal showed the state agency has lax enforcement against brokers and agents accused of breaking real estate business rules and regulations.
Costa’s broker license was recently revoked, according to DBPR’s online database. A department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2021, two years after another federal indictment against him, Costa founded Scope Realty, a South Miami-based residential real estate brokerage, as first reported by the Miami Herald.
Costa allegedly formed Scope Realty with Amy Caballero and Perla Valenzuela, two real estate sales associates who obtained their licenses in 2022, according to a deleted post from the brokerage’s Instagram account featuring a photo of the trio. The caption read: “Introducing our powerhouse team, owners Amy Caballero & Perla Valenzuela alongside our broker Stephen with 25+ years of experience…”
Scope Realty’s Instagram account and website identifies Caballero and Valenzuela as the sole co-founders and co-owners of the brokerage. But their names were removed as company managers from state incorporation records in April 2023, leaving only Costa’s name. Documents filed with the Florida Division of Corporations in January show a new manager for Scope Realty: Miami-based real estate broker Adalis Carbo.
Carbo told TRD that one of Scope Realty’s agents who used to work with her asked her if she would transfer Scope Realty under her broker’s license. She agreed, Carbo said, adding that she does not know Costa.
