Scott Rothstein Arrested; Charged With Racketeering
UPDATED 1:19 P.M. ET (U.S.A.) Former Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein was arrested by the FBI this morning after being charged with racketeering and other offenses.
The arrest occurred only days after Rothstein was disbarred by the Florida Supreme Court. Rothstein pleaded not guilty. He then was jailed without bail.
Separately, federal prosecutors moved late last week to seize even more assets tied to Rothstein, including a luxury apartment in New York in the same building convicted Ponzi schemer Marc Drier had an apartment.
Like Rothstein, Drier was an attorney. He is serving 20 years for defrauding investment and law clients. Drier’s apartment in the building was 34C; Rothstein’s was 42D.
A prosecution under RICO statutes suggests investigators believe that Rothstein was part of a broader criminal enterprise that included others. The charges, which also included mail fraud and wire fraud, were part of a “criminal information,” as opposed to an indictment.
Rothstein’s 70-attorney law firm — Rothstein Rosenfeldt and Adler (RRA) — was described in today’s criminal information as an “Enterprise” as defined under federal racketeering statutes. Prosecutors charged that Rothstein had conspirators “known and unknown” who engaged in “a pattern of racketering activity.”
No alleged co-conspirators were named.
“The principal purpose of the racketeering conspiracy was to generate money for [Rothstein] and his co-conspirators through the operation of the Enterprise and through various criminal activities, including mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering,” prosecutors charged.
They asserted that the RRA law firm was the the “base of operations” for a Ponzi and fraud scheme.
“RRA was utilized by the defendant and his co-conspirators to unlawfully obtain approximately $1.2 billion from investors,” prosecutors charged.
See Nov. 22 story. See Nov. 23 story on allegations RRA attorneys and employees were being paid with Ponzi proceeds.
Read a story at SunSentinel.com. (Look to the left on the Sun Sentinel page to see a link to a video, with remarks from Rothstein’s attorney, who notably did not protest Rothstein’s innocence.)
Gee, I wonder when they will arrest Uncle Andy???? And Robert Garner?????
Don:
Maybe your asking the wrong people for the answer. You might want to ask that question to Robert Lee Guenther ” Investigator Extraordinaire” as he claims to have all the answers.