court records.)

The injunction hurt Hunter & Hunter. It "essentially terminates the operation of our firm," a company attorney wrote in a petition asking the judge for relief. (The petition was granted several days later, after Hunter & Hunter was able to prove the firm had separated money possibly tainted by Huber's actions from the accounts it used for day-to-day business.) Hunter & Hunter representatives have declined to comment on the issue for this story.

Locking up the assets also brought Monica Huber out of hiding. She filed for divorce from Gunnar and started using her maiden name, Ryan. By then she had quit her job at Lehman Brothers in Miami and moved back to New York to live with her sister. When Judge Speiser granted Taft's request to freezeher personal checking account pending investigation, she penned an impassioned letter to the jurist, declaring her innocence. "I have been taken advantage of by Mr. Huber, just as others have," she wrote. "I am sure that you will discover that I am an innocent party, and I am desperately trying to put my life back together after one year of a disastrous marriage to Mr. Huber." In another letter she characterized her soon-to-be ex-husband as "awful," "abusive," and "deceitful." She wrote that she feared for her own safety if he discovered her whereabouts.

To help clear her name, Ryan volunteered to help with the investigation. In October she flew from New York to South Florida, where she was interviewed by Broward County court investigators and the FBI. "As it