Felony Conviction Interim Suspension

The Florida Supreme Court has suspended an attorney based on felony convictions and appointed a referee to conduct a hearing on sanctions. 

The Miami Herald reported on the charges

To stalk and terrorize his ex-girlfriend for months, a Miami lawyer secretly affixed a GPS tracker to her car, then used an online program known as Spoofcard to mask his phone calls to her, investigators say.

But police found that Grant Sarbinoff used his own bank accounts to pay for the services — evidence that led to his arrest Tuesday on a slew of stalking and identity-theft charges.

And that was just part of a campaign of harassment, police say. The 37-year-old lawyer is also accused of sending hundreds of bizarre e-mails over months, following her around town and hacking into her various online retail accounts, even canceling the electricity in her home.

Sarbinoff, of Miami Beach, was arrested Tuesday by Miami-Dade Police’s Cyber Crimes unit. He was booked into the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

He’s been accused of this behavior before. In 2015, according to Broward court records, a judge issued a permanent injunction against him for stalking a woman.

Sarbinoff has been a lawyer since 2010, according to the Florida Bar. Sarbinoff could not immediately be reached for comment – and it was not yet clear if he had obtained an attorney.

The program Spoofcard allows users to mask their calls, disguising them as calls from other people. Miami-Dade detectives issued a subpoena and learned he used his e-mail, phone number and Bank of America credit account to open the Spoofcard account.

He and the victim, who is also a lawyer, met on the match-making website Tinder in November 2015. They dated for over a year, according to an arrest warrant.

Last September, after they broke up, he began contacting her daily, even though she blocked his number and repeatedly asked him to stop. According to the arrest warrant, Sarbinoff also:

▪  Hacked or tried hacking into the woman’s Hulu, Publix and Instagram accounts, among dozens of others. Online purchases were made in her name, as were reservations at a restaurant and massage service. Her identity was even used to order Papa John’s pizza without her permission.

▪  Repeatedly used Uber to travel to her block in trips investigators believe was to spy on her. He also followed her to a movie – and later was seen shadowing her as she walked her dog.

▪  Used the Spoofcard program to repeatedly call her, masking them as coming from phone numbers from over a dozen friends and associates of hers.

After months of harassing phone calls to her, her new boyfriend and other people in her life, the woman reported the case to authorities. After hearing her story, a Miami-Dade State Attorney’s investigator walked out to the parking lot and found the GPS tracker hidden underneath her car, according to the warrant.

His bank account was used to pay for the subscription GPS monitoring service, according to the warrant by Miami-Dade detective Steve Kaufman.

This story was originally published May 2, 2017 3:15 PM.

(Mike Frisch)