Chief operating officer Debra Villegas who is the right-hand woman of Scott Rothstein at his Fort Lauderdale law firm is expected to be charged with conspiring to do fund embezzlement from Rothstein’s massive investment racket within the next week.

If this happens then she would be the first alleged co-conspirator to be named in the largest financial fraud in South Florida history, Rothstein's $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.

It is alleged that the siphoned funds were used to buy her a house in Weston and sources familiar with the case also stated that large political donations in her name were made with the funds.

Her lawyer, Paul Lazarus, declined to comment on Wednesday and if the charge is proved then it carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, and to cooperate with the ongoing federal investigation.

Others who are under scrutiny are name partners Stuart Rosenfeldt and Russell Adler; another senior partner, Steven Lippman; chief financial officer Irene Stay; and general counsel David Boden.

Villegas was getting an yearly take home of $120,000 and being a paralegal with no college degree, she rose to serv as the top operating officer at Rothstein's firm, where he described her to colleagues as his second-in-command.

No public comments came from Villegas since news of Rothstein's scam surfaced over Halloween weekend after he fled to Morocco.