Restaurateur opens glam Miami Beach restaurant while facing federal indictment

A Miami-based restaurateur who is currently facing federal criminal charges in Chicago just opened a glamorous, upscale restaurant in Miami Beach.

On Friday, Igor Dze opened his second restaurant and lounge in Miami-Dade County with co-owner and hospitality professional Mehdi Vanden Broeck. Named Leonardo after the Renaissance painter, scientist and inventor Leonardo da Vinci and decorated with lavish chandeliers, antique mirrors and artwork that pays homage to the famous Old Master, the restaurant at 2000 Collins Ave. aims to blend classic Italian cuisine with music, design and art to create a luxurious, late-night dinner party experience.

Dze, 45, opened his first restaurant, the Mediterranean spot Amavi, in Midtown Miami with partners in early July 2025. As it was getting ready to open, according to court documents, Dze was indicted along with six other men on charges of participating in a criminal conspiracy in Chicago.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Illinois, the conspiracy allegedly involved using armed security to protect drug trafficking activities at what authorities called “an open-air marijuana market” in the 1200 block of West 73rd Place. The indictment alleges that the defendants sold marijuana in the Englewood neighborhood and stored drugs, guns and cash nearby.

Law enforcement agencies seized around 2,000 pounds of marijuana, approximately 81 firearms including five assault-style rifles, $425,000 in cash and jewelry valued around $300,000.

Dze, who according to court documents lives in a home on North Venetian Drive in Miami Beach valued at $3.2 million, was indicted with six alleged co-conspirators, identified by their legal names and also by nicknames: Kejuan Bryant (known as “Beeda”); Jamari Goodman (“Skeeda”); Joseph Albert Heath (“Jody Jo”); Matthew Furdge (“Poodah”) and Khiry Strickland (“Ree”). Dze was also known as “England.”

Bryant, Goodman and Heath were also charged with illegally possessing firearms to further drug trafficking and Bryant was charged with one individual drug distribution count.

Dze, who faces up to 40 years in prison if convicted, was not connected to the firearms part of the investigation, according to court records.

.

In court documents of Dze’s detention hearing in federal court in Miami in July 2025, prosecutor Michael Berger told the court that based on evidence from wire-tapped calls, the defendant’s role was “to provide the supply of marijuana for the conspiracy through connections that he had in California.” He also cited a car chase in which Dze, who was born in Cameroon and has both a U.S. and French passport, was in the car in which law enforcement officials found 43 pounds of marijuana.

Dze was released on bonds totalling $500,000 and made to surrender his passport, according to court records.

Attorney David Rothman of Rothman & Associates, the firm representing Dze, declined to comment on the case. Dze’s Miami-based publicist also declined to comment.

Dze’s restaurant Leonardo is now open for dinner service every night except Tuesdays with live music and cabaret performances after 10:30 p.m.