Coral Springs man swindles older mentor out of $249K in fake stock scam, cops say

A Coral Springs man is accused of defrauding an older mentor figure and his former boss out of $250,000 in a yearslong scheme to convince him to buy Shake Shack stock.

Kenneth Robert Rodriguez, 49, is now facing charges of first-degree grand theft of over $100,000, exploitation of an elderly person over $100,000 and obtaining property over $50,000 by fraud, Broward court records show.

Rodriguez’s attorney, A.J. Amoroso, told the Coral Springs News on Feb. 12 that his client has “always had every intention of paying restitution,” and that the wheels have already been set in motion to do so.

The situation was previously litigated in a civil case, in which a judge issued a default judgment in August 2025 ordering Rodriguez to pay the victim $264,380.

The civil complaint details the close relationship Rodriguez had with the plaintiff, saying that Rodriguez referred to the older man as “pops.” The two met when Rodriguez was working at a restaurant that the other man owned, and they developed a friendship, as Rodriguez would seek his advice on personal and financial questions, according to the filing.

Rodriguez began working at Shake Shake after the restaurant sold and worked for the company for roughly five years, according to court documents.

During this time, and after he left the job, he’s accused of convincing his friend to hand over a dozen checks to buy stock in the company, and he showed documents that the sale was underway, detectives with the Coral Springs Police Department wrote in a probable cause affidavit.

Rodriguez first approached his former boss in 2020 with a story about how two of Rodriguez’s co-workers needed money and were willing to sell their stock in Shake Shack, police said.

He said the victim would receive the stock once it matured, according to the victim’s account.

The victim paid Rodriguez, thinking he was using the money to help facilitate the stock purchase, but those purchases never happened, police said.

Rodriguez went back to his friend and said the two employees wanted to sell more shares, so the victim handed over additional cashier’s checks, totaling 12, according to detectives.

The man grew suspicious after about a year, but Rodriguez put him off by saying the stocks take two years to mature, police said. At the end of those two years, Rodriguez then told the victim that Shake Shack was delaying the disbursement, which Shake Shack confirmed to be untrue, according to the affidavit.

He also gave his mentor fake documents that appeared to show the stock purchase and an account that had 10,225 Shake Shack stock options in the victim’s name, according to police and the civil filing.

The company told investigators that Rodriguez had been gifted stock as part of his compensation package but had immediately sold it, and Shake Shack didn’t have a program that would have allowed employees to purchase stock directly from the company, court documents show.

Rodriguez called and texted his friend he was sorry and would pay him back, according to messages viewed by investigators.

Coral Springs officers arrested Rodriguez on Feb. 6, and he bonded out of Broward jail three days later, records show. He’s pleaded not guilty to the charges.

This story was originally published February 12, 2026 at 11:32 AM.