FORT MYERS, Fla.-Robert Mengle says he invested with former real estate agent Samir Cabrera-- and paid the price.

"He's not an honest person," he said.

He says cabrera took him for 100 thousand dollars. He was accused of flipping property off Daniels Parkway in Lee county without telling investors he was involved in the buying and selling of the properties.

Mengle always held onto hope Cabrera would be re-tried after an unrelated supreme court decision threw out part of the case.

In the end it all came down to the jury instruction form in his original trial. They didn't check the guilty box for scheme to defraud investors. But they didn't have to check the "not guilty" box either. Prosecutors wanted to re-try him for those. His former lawyer says that could be the only reason he's not in prison right now.

"A check on a box, that's how close. His whole life was being attacked. All the good things he'd done. He was a posterchild for the victim of the real estate collapse. I'm very happy for him and his family that his name has been cleared," said John Mills.

But the people who say Cabrera took them for everything are not giving up yet.

"Hopefully the prosecution will be able to appeal this. And justice will definitely be served."