BULLETIN: Ponzi Swindler And Racketeer Scott Rothstein Sentenced To 50 Years In Federal Prison For $1.2 Billion Scam; Schemer Forged Judges’ Signatures, Threatened Reporter

I had completely lost my moral compass. And though I clearly had the ability and opportunity to stop the forward motion of what would be a series of many despicable acts that would ultimately destroy my family, destroy my law firm, cause intense harm to people that loved me and trusted me, I never sincerely attempted to stop. I always had every intention of repaying the money. I had exit strategies to pay everyone off and move forward.

And in the early part of this horrific scheme, I could have pulled out of the spin, paid everyone off and lived a beautiful life. All I had to do was reel in my spending which my beyond absurd . . . in my firm’s growth, and most importantly reel in my ego. But that would have required me to admit that the persona I had created for myself and the world, the successful lawyer, entrepreneur and [businessman], were not superhuman. That I was fallible and had, in fact, failed. And my greed and ego were not going to allow that to happen.

I kept orchestrating these fictitious loans to support the firm and [its] ludicrous growth, and to line my pockets and the pockets of my co-conspirators. As I stole more in the form of these ‘loans for clients’, I paid higher and higher interest rates and concocted more complicated lies . . . frauds calculated by me to keep the cycle alive. The interest rates were not those requested by my investors, but were, of my own creation. It served to bolster my fictitious business [acumen.] . . .

“By this time the ponzi scheme had grown so large that I was literally spending almost every waking hour doing something to prevent it from blowing up in my face. It was constantly on the verge of collapse. And yet, I never even tried to stop the bleeding. I kept spending like it was really my money; more expensive cars, boats, homes, offices, jewelry … increasing the firms payroll to ridiculous unsustainable levels … all the trappings of wealth.

I gave money to everyone; family, friends, charities. Money that was not mine to give. I convinced myself that I was eventually going to pay it back so I had the right to spend it. I convinced myself that my exit strategy would work. It was my only hope. I kept telling myself that I just needed to hang on for a few more months. And months became years . . . ## PP Blog ##

NOTE: This story has been republished at a URL that is different than its original URL. Although this post reflects a date of June 13, it is not the original publication date. Click here to read why.

GO TO PAGE: 1 2