All language subtitles for American Greed s05e06 1.2 Billion Scam Ft Frauderdale.eng

In this episode of American Greed, Scott

Rothstein, always the life of the party,
a guy who wants

the world to love him.

He was a larger -than -life type of
person, very charismatic.

He is raking in hundreds of millions of
dollars.

You saw Scott.

You're thinking money. And he spends it
like it will never run out. He amassed

over 200 watches, 100 suits, 9 or 10
cars at any one point in time,

a number of homes.

But the money does run out. And Scott
Rothstein is revealed as the mastermind

behind the largest Ponzi scheme in
Florida history.

One investor alone lost $125 million.

You're like, wow, this is much bigger
than we thought.

October 29, 2009.

In one of Fort Lauderdale's wealthiest
neighborhoods, a dinner party is just

beginning. It is an annual charity
event, this year held at the multi

dollar mansion of a newcomer to town,
Scott Rothstein.

Head of an up -and -coming law firm,
Rothstein bursts onto the Fort

scene out of nowhere, and today holds
near celebrity status.

He's the go -to guy for politicians in
need of money and a source of enormous

donations for local charities.

For the guests tonight, employees and
volunteers of the nonprofit's Rothstein

Showers with Money, this is a rare
chance to rub shoulders with the famous

spender. Many people in the nonprofit
and charitable community

who had never come in contact with Scott
Rothstein, thought, you know what, I'm

going to meet this man, the myth, the
legend, the white knight.

Everything is in place to showcase
Rothstein's extraordinary wealth.

In the driveway, a fleet of luxury cars,
including a Maserati, a Ferrari, a

Bugatti. It was almost like you were
going to a car show.

At the back of the house, the 87 -foot
yacht named for Rothstein's wife, the

Princess Kimberly.

Inside, the decor is like that of
royalty.

Even the toilets are gold.

The setting is perfect. Just one thing
is missing.

Scott Rothstein.

As guests started to mingle through the
crowd, the question was, well, where's

Scott?

Rothstein is a man who never misses a
party or a chance to prove his own

importance. And yet, tonight he's
nowhere to be seen.

It became a joke. There was no Scott.

By tomorrow, the whole city will know
what the guests tonight have discovered.

The local hotshot Scott Rothstein is
missing.

The biggest financial fraud in Florida
history will break wide open.

The story of Scott Rothstein's con in
Fort Lauderdale begins just over ten

ago, a time when no one in this city has
even heard of Rothstein.

He's a boy from the Bronx who makes his
way through Nova Law School and in 1999

is hired at a small law firm in
Hollywood, Florida by managing partner

Phillips. I thought he was a good
attorney when he wanted to practice law.

actually saw him try a case.

And he tried a nice case.

If he had continued to practice the way
he did the first year with us, he would

have stayed with us for a long time.

But Rothstein isn't interested in trying
cases.

Years later, in a letter to the
sentencing judge, he writes that his

create a law firm that is the envy of
all others, the largest, the wealthiest,

the most powerful.

Scott was, I don't know if you've ever
heard of pro noia.

It's people who have, I would say,
delusions of grandeur.

And he thought that he could do anything
he wanted to do and get it done.

Without a game plan, without a budget,
without a business plan.

After two years, Rothstein doesn't
deliver the business he promises, and

Phillips asks him to leave.

As Rothstein departs, a fellow partner
and friend, Stuart Rosenfeld, makes a

fateful decision to join him.

They head to Las Olas Boulevard in Fort
Lauderdale and with another friend open

their own firm, Rothstein, Rosenfeld &
Adler, known as RRA.

They did labor and employment law.

and they did a good job representing, I
think, on both sides, labor and

management. I think they represented the
police unions and things like that.

For years, the firm operates in relative
obscurity. But by 2005,

Rothstein is making his move.

He started hiring and merging with firms
and bringing in other

lawyers and expanded from labor to
everything, sort of overnight.

This law firm grew out of nowhere.

It was incredible how quickly, over the
last five or six years, they went from

five or six lawyers to something like 70
people working in that law firm.

By December 2005, at the RRA holiday
party, Rothstein is on his way to the

times. He has just been added to the
list of best lawyers in America.

You look around this room, you look at
what we were three, four years ago, and

you look where we are now. This is
absolutely amazing.

Still at his side is the loyal Stuart
Rosenfeld.

It says here, my name is Stuart
Rosenfeld.

My wife Susie is the love of my life.

Susie, I got news for you. She's the
love of my life, too.

From all appearances, RRA could not be
more successful, and Rothstein is

determined that his firm will be the
envy of all others, no matter what it

takes.

Well,

they were in every magazine, all the

society magazines.

You couldn't open the paper that you
didn't see some advertisement for RRA.

Just last football season in 2009,

I was at the stadium where the Miami
Dolphins play.

And during one game, Rothstein's name
was over the loudspeaker every five

minutes.

Today's game is sponsored by Scott
Rothstein of Rothstein Rosenfeld Adler

It was the strangest thing.

Rothstein eventually gets RRA national
exposure, at prime time, no less.

The firm sponsors an HBO Boxing After
Dark match. It's HBO's Boxing After

and it's sponsored by Rothstein,
Rosenfeld, Adler Attorneys at Law. And

the center of the ring is Rothstein
himself.

These days, he is the center of
attention everywhere.

Enormous donations to charities buy
Rothstein and his wife Kim a place at

table with the richest of the rich.

He is named Humanitarian of the Year.

700 people attend a lunch to honor him.

Rothstein is also generous to
politicians.

He is an early backer of Florida
Governor Charlie Crist.

At Crist's birthday fundraiser,
Rothstein beats everyone.

pledging more than $50 ,000.

But that is small change for Rothstein.

In all, he and his firm donate more than
a million dollars to the Republican

Party, and Rothstein climbs to the top.

John McCain is our next president. We'll
change the state of Florida, we'll

change the United States, and we'll
change the world.

He even hosts John McCain at his house.

Thank you for coming to this modest
middle -income tract, home.

You know, the difference between me and
Senator Obama is Senator Obama wants

every American to have a home. I want
every American to have a home like this

one.

Rothstein's political connections pay
off.

Chris appoints Rothstein to a commission
for the Court of Appeals.

He went from being an energetic, affable
young man to,

you know, a power broker.

In 10 years.

It was the fastest rise of a local
lawyer I've ever seen.

Come on this way.

The building you see across the street
was where he had his law firm and some

or 70 people working there for him.

In almost no time, downtown Fort
Lauderdale becomes the center of

business empire.

He owned a bank, a vodka company, a
piece of a watch company, this

the cars, the boats, multiple homes. He
had another home up, I think, up in

Rhode Island.

But it is his personal extravagance that
is the talk of the town.

Besides the flashy cars and enormous
yachts, he accumulates $34 million worth

real estate.

His wife is doing her part with the
American Express card as well.

spending $21 ,000 on shoes and $42 ,000
at a single dress shop in town.

And right here along the sidewalk is
where Scott would park his Bayron

When that car pulled up, everybody
talked about it, you don't see a $2

car every day.

His wealth buys him power and influence
and prestige, but also suspicion.

Where's all this money coming from?

Scott was living this rock star
lifestyle, the fast cars and the fancy

the yachts and hanging out with the
governor of the state of Florida.

You don't make that kind of money as a
lawyer. I'm sorry. We were all curious.

Where was it coming from?

Up next on American Greed, find out the
real source of Rothstein's million.

I was just shocked. They told my wife
that I either found the greatest deal of

lifetime or there's a huge fraud going
on.

December 2006.

It is time for another holiday party for
the Fort Lauderdale law firm Rothstein,

Rosenfeld, and Adler.

This is all about your money.

Scott Rothstein appears to be at the top
of his game.

He has a hugely successful law firm.

He's well connected to the Republican
Party.

Holds a firm place on the city's social
ladder.

and has money to burn on cars, gots, and
jewelry.

But across Fort Lauderdale, one question
looms large.

Where is Rothstein's money really coming
from?

Even members of his own law firm don't
know the answer.

That's right, we're breaking the f***ing
law.

They don't know that Rothstein is
running a Ponzi scheme.

Take that out of the film.

It's a complicated scheme.

Here's how it works.

Rothstein makes up a story. He tells
investors that his law firm has settled

suit for an employee who was sexually
harassed at work.

It's completely phony. There was no
case. But Rothstein claims the

they have won is huge.

Let's say $1 .4 million.

The company is willing to pay it out
over a period of six months.

But the person who sued is in urgent
need of the money and so is willing to

the $1 .4 million settlement for $800
,000 in order to get money immediately.

Let's assume you have a woman who's the
victim of sex discrimination in the

office. Litigation doesn't get resolved
overnight.

It might have taken one or two years. In
the meantime, she's got no job and no

money. She's not paying her mortgage.
She's running up her credit card debt.

so the investor would be told, look,
these people need their money now.

They can't wait four months.

It would make sense.

The investor pays the $800 ,000 to the
victim of harassment and then over six

months gets the full settlement, a
profit of $600 ,000 in a very short

These settlements were selling to
investors for between somewhere around

25 % to as high as 36%. That's a very
high interest rate. And

if anybody...

ever offers you an investment of more
than 10 % per year, it's probably not

legitimate.

To support the plausible story,
Rothstein produces a mountain of

And there is one document that cinches
the deal.

The all -important wire transfer
document from the bank itself, showing

settlement money has been wired into a
trust account at RRA.

Every victim I've spoken with has one
thing to say in terms of what motivated

them to make the investment. Every
single one.

The money was in the bank.

As his scheme takes hold, Rothstein
finds promoters who seek out investors

commission.

One contacts Miami attorney Alan
Sackowitz, a successful real estate

I told him if the returns are reasonable
and the risk is low, I'd be interested

in knowing more.

Sackowitz heads up to Fort Lauderdale to
meet Rothstein in his office.

The walls were papered with thank you
notes and pictures of everybody who was

anybody in Broward County and beyond.

Rothstein presents Sackowitz with the
package of supporting documents.

All of the information was redacted. The
names were taken out. The amounts were

taken out.

All we would see is just a bunch of
papers where all the pertinent

was gone. That was unacceptable.

For Rothstein, that is the beauty of his
scheme. He can claim that everything

must be kept confidential.

And I said, Scott...

I want to see the file, and I want to
see it right now. I want to know that if

we're talking about buying something, I
want to know that it's real.

And he says, Alan, you're making me feel
very uncomfortable because you're

asking me to do something illegal.

I said, I'm not asking you to do
anything illegal.

You're asking me to buy this settlement.
Your client wants to sell me this

settlement. I want to see the file. And
he says, I'm absolutely not giving you

that. And then I said, okay, at least
let me speak to their attorney.

And he says, I'm the attorney.

I said, you can't be the attorney for
every case in your office.

He says, ask me anything you want. I
handled the case. I said, I'm not

a nickel.

I'm not putting any investors in until
we know that this is real. And so far,

everything could be explained with
Photoshop.

I went home and I was just shocked. I
told my wife that I either found the

greatest deal of a lifetime.

Or there's a huge fraud going on with
this major law firm and nothing they

exists. And I just couldn't figure out
which it was.

But others buy in.

The scheme attracts hundreds of
investors who pay millions of dollars

settlements that actually do not exist.

They convince themselves that little can
go wrong.

After all, Rothstein is cloaked in
legitimacy.

Scott's wealthy.

He's successful.

Governor Charlie Crist is one of his
best friends.

He's friends with all the judges, with
all the police.

He's in the right charities.

You know, it's like that rock song, Life
in the Fast Lane. They threw all the

right parties. They took all the right
pills.

You know, they lived life in the fast
lane.

In the end, Sackowitz turns down
Rothstein's investment opportunity.

And he places a call to the FBI asking
the agency to determine if Scott

Rothstein is a fraud.

In short order, everyone will know the
answer.

Next on American Greed, inside the final
desperate days of a Ponzi scheme.

He started missing payments and then
started making up excuses as to how come

the payment was missed.

He was furiously trying to...

find more money to fill the hole.

Anyone who knows South Florida knows
Fort Lauderdale is one of the wealthiest

towns in the state.

Big money lives here.

And in this world of the super rich, The
man trying to outspend them all is

Scott Rothstein.

For four years, he has been selling
phony settlements out of his law office

support a life of extraordinary
extravagance.

Recently, the bogus enterprise has
attracted enormous quantities of cash.

He promised very high returns, very
typical of Ponzi scheme.

And in a typical Ponzi scheme fashion,
he paid those returns.

for quite a while. And if you promise
somebody 28 to 36 percent in just four

months, which annualizes to some 140
percent a year, and you pay it, people

going to throw money at you.

One of those investors is George Levin,
a Florida businessman who brings in two

New York hedge funds, Platinum Partners
and Centurion Structured Growth.

It is a turning point for Rothstein.

It's like a stock chart that just goes
up, up, up, up, up. It has to do with

more and more cash coming in through
George Levin's hedge funds.

And those hedge funds put in $800
million.

And it was an amount that was simply too
big for Scott to handle.

He would need to steal, you know, a
billion dollars every three or four

to keep it going, and even bigger than
that, because the returns were so high.

By April 2009, Scott Rothstein is in big
trouble.

The investors are demanding money he
simply does not have.

His email inbox is littered with
messages from his business associate.

Just a friendly reminder, we are behind
$1 .5 million from the end of last month

and have an additional $15 million due
today and another.

I'm petrified.

If word gets out that we are $125
million past due, we will never see

cent. He started missing payments.

and then started making up excuses as to
how come the payment was missed. The

bank was slow on releasing the funds and
this and that while he was furiously

trying to find more money to fill the
hole.

Rothstein responds,

What the hell is that bullshit about you
being concerned?

You make me sound like the problem.

Don't hang me out to drive with these
motherfuckers.

people started realizing that this thing
was not as represented.

Because as it was represented, the
money's in the trust account at the

the payments will come every month right
out of the trust account. So that if

you miss a payment out of the trust
account, either the bank messed up and

didn't make a payment, or the money's
not there.

Later, in the letter to his sentencing
judge, Rothstein writes, By this time, I

was literally spending almost every
waking hour doing something to prevent

from blowing up in my face.

It was constantly on the verge of
collapse.

But then in May, Philadelphia money
manager named Barry Beckett steps in.

What we've done recently is we found an
area of legal settlement, for example,

that we recently funded with $100
million.

According to a lawsuit filed by
Rothstein's investors, Beckett, in his

promoter for Rothstein, is able to
secure enormous new investments.

Believe it or not, we negotiated the
first $100 million of outside money to

in. We're getting a 15 % current cash
return.

He reports his success to an investment
conference in Las Vegas.

Most of the $100 million comes from
clients of William Scherer.

At this point, Scherer believes that
some of the early investors must suspect

Rothstein's investments are a scam.

But they know new investors offer the
only hope of getting their money back.

A lot of people kept quiet, kind of
turned a blind eye to it in order to get

their money back. But they weren't
getting their money back because their

was already gone.

They were getting back what Mr.
Rothstein was stealing at that time.

With the spring panic behind him,
Rothstein celebrates with a spending

his favorite stores in town.

In July, his charges to his American
Express card topped $900 ,000 in just

one month.

The Ponzi scheme and the money were like
a drug to me, he writes to the judge

who will sentence him.

But the high only lasted until the next
round of payments were due.

I would crash hard.

I repeatedly considered it suicide.

A few months later, in the fall, the
demanding emails start again.

This system is not working, his
associate writes.

Yesterday, I failed to make $500 ,000 in
payments to our largest investor, and

it will not be pretty today.

By mid -October, Rothstein is forming a
plan.

He sends an email to his staff with a
question about a client who has become a

citizen of Israel.

He writes that the client is likely to
be charged with a multitude of crimes in

the United States, including fraud,
money laundering, and embezzlement.

Rothstein wants to know if the client
could be charged in Israel for crimes

committed in the U .S. He also asks
about extradition treaties.

Time is of the essence.

Let's rock and roll. There is a very
large fee attached to this case.

Scott obviously saw the end coming.

And he knew that he had sets of payments
that needed to go out at the very end

of October, and he did not have the cash
to cover them.

October 27th. An email arrives from his
associate.

If I don't get $8 million today, then
tomorrow I will be officially gone.

My ability to stay afloat with smoke and
mirrors is gone.

Really gone.

So am I.

It's over.

Rothstein makes the decision to run.

He heads to the executive airport north
of Fort Lauderdale, boards a chartered

jet with $16 million and his watch
collection, and flees in panic to

Morocco.

And that is where Scott Rothstein is on
the night that guests gather at

his house for the charity dinner.

None of the partygoers know that the
dinner, the champagne, the cars, and the

house have all been bought with stolen
money.

And no one can predict the magnitude of
the scandal that will explode the next

day.

Coming up on American Greed, Rothstein
is a free man in Morocco. Now he must

make the decision to stay or return to
the scene of the crime.

Halloween weekend 2009.

The news spreads quickly across Fort
Lauderdale.

Not only is mega -millionaire Scott
Rothstein missing, but so is most of the

money in his law firm's accounts.

I get a phone call from a friend of mine
who worked at the law firm and said,

Scott's gone.

The law firm's saying he stole all the
firm's money.

At Rothstein's office, there is
disbelief, panic.

There was a complete meltdown in there
on that Friday when the investors are,

you know, buzzing down the phone lines,
where's our money, and they want to look

at the bank accounts, and bank accounts
that should have had hundreds of

millions of dollars in them are empty.

RRA attorney Mark Nurick is in his
office when he gets a call from one of

partners.

Sounded ominous, and I went down to his
office. There were a number of other

partners in there, and they all look
like death.

And that's when they told me that Scott
was missing and that supposedly a

billion dollars or so of client money
was missing. And I said, what?

And I looked around to see if Alan Funt
or Ashton Kutcher was around because I

thought I was being punked.

As I was digesting this, I went back up
to my office.

I received a phone call, and lo and
behold, it was Scott.

It was on the other end. It was, in
fact, calling me from Morocco.

And I said, what the heck is going on?

He says, I can't talk to you until you
resign from the firm. I need you to be

lawyer. I need you to help me out.

Nurek makes the decision quickly to take
on Rothstein's case.

Well, I had known Scott for many years.
He was a friend.

And, of course, let's face facts.

What was I leaving?

At that point, it didn't take much to
realize I was jumping off the Titanic

as it was hitting the iceberg.

took the leap of faith to represent him.

Immediately, the other partners begin to
cover themselves.

They go to court to place the law firm
in receivership under the control of a

judge out of the hands of Scott
Rothstein.

Next, they invite the news media into
their offices to show how Rothstein

in a tightly controlled environment.

We're heading to, down at the corner, is
going to be the Rothstein Sanctum, the

Inner Sanctum, whatever.

It is the sanctum of a highly secretive
man.

I want to just point out that we have a
couple of things that you won't see in

other law firms.

A surveillance camera.

And over here is a microphone that were
controlled by Scott Rothstein.

We'll invite you into the office of
Scott Rothstein itself.

Take a minute or two to get a sense of
it.

In one sense, Scott did a very good job
of keeping a secret from his own

partners. In another sense, they see all
this money he's making, and if they

know law firm economics, shouldn't they
have been a little suspicious?

Stuart Rosenfeld, in particular, is
under a spotlight.

Is it true that there was, in October,
$500 million in firm accounts, and then

few days later it was down to $500 ,000?

I don't know the answer to that.

You're a partner, one of the top guys.
You're a named partner.

You're Stuart Rosenfeld, who was the
president of the firm, who claimed the

Schultz defense.

I know nothing. I see nothing.

I never saw the books.

Stuart was an equity partner, and he's
now saying, Scott didn't allow me

to look at the books and records.

That may be true, but he still had an
obligation to do it.

Before the week is out, the FBI moves in
to seize anything of value from

Rothstein's house.

As cars and computers are taken away,
the size of Rothstein's crime is

When we had the initial reports that a
couple hundred million dollars might be

involved, I was like, okay, this is
bigger than our usual run -of -the -mill

or $20 million Ponzi scheme in South
Florida.

But then the magnitude started coming
out. And you hear one investor alone

$125 million. You're like, wow, this is
much bigger than we thought.

As investors come forward, Jeffrey Son
files suit on behalf of a few.

William Scherer files another for
investors who claim a loss of $100

Some of them were angry. Some of them
were angry at themselves. I mean...

I'm thinking, you know, I have only
myself to blame for this.

The victims Scherer represents are
multimillionaires who took a chance

in the scheme.

But Rothstein's greed reaches far and
wide, even in the small town of Margate,

ten miles north of Fort Lauderdale.

This is the home of John Figueroa, a
father of two children.

He's a highway maintenance man who was
injured on the job when a piece of

equipment malfunctioned.

I'm an everyday person who works from
paycheck to paycheck.

It hit us hard. Whatever savings we had,
we had to dip into.

But then he hires an attorney at RRA and
wins a settlement, a real settlement,

for $90 ,000.

What we were going to do is just put it
all in the bank, pay whatever we had to

pay off, and set up accounts for the
kids. You know, make sure that everyone

a financial future.

The money is deposited into an RRA trust
account at the end of October.

to be distributed to Figueroa later.

It's just as Scott Rothstein is
desperately looking for cash to feed his

With no other money on hand, Rothstein
helps himself to the law firm trust

accounts. These are escrow accounts.

They're never supposed to be touched.

So not only did Scott allegedly steal
the victim's money, he stole his own

client's money.

These are people who are school
teachers, firefighters, clerks in retail

And these people wanted their money
yesterday or last week, not to be told

the money was gone.

While the shockwaves of Rothstein's
crime continue to be felt, Fort

waits to see if he will return from
Morocco.

He was in Morocco with at least $16
million liquid, with a watch collection

was conservatively estimated 200 watches
over several million dollars.

He would have probably had at his
disposal 20 -plus million dollars in a

that had no extradition treaty with the
U .S. I'm sure with 20 million dollars

he could have lived quite well.

But Rothstein does what no one expects.

He boards a chartered jet and heads back
to Fort Lauderdale.

Now, why did Scott return?

Ask yourself that question.

He got away with it. And there's only
one reason we can all think of.

Somebody must have threatened the lives
of his parents and his wife.

That was the scuttlebutt. If you don't
come back, we're going to have them

killed.

Scott's story is, I got a conscience and
I decided to return and confess and try

and make good.

I don't believe that for a second.

Once a con man, always a con man.

Scott came back and disappeared.

um was not making any public appearances
was not returning to his mansion on the

canal uh he was not driving around in
his ferraris anymore he disappeared why

isn't scott in jail he comes back and he
is not arrested right away and we're

all wondering why i know one of the
questions you guys have is why he hasn't

been arrested you know we want a
successful prosecution so we are not

rush this investigation unbeknownst to
everybody else he was

with agents and prosecutors around the
clock for a month, cooperating,

providing detailed information on every
aspect of the scheme, and involving

himself in active undercover operations.

It is later reported that Rothstein is
taking on some extraordinary assignments

to win favor with the feds.

He agrees to wear a wire and meet with a
reputed Italian mobster, Roberto

Satinari. He asks Satinari and his
friends for help laundering money and

destroying documents.

In the end, the guys went for it.
They've all pled guilty now, and a

mafia figure that was wanted by both
Italian authorities and American

authorities is now facing prison.

It is why Rothstein is not arrested and
why Nurek has to provide a cover story.

We felt it was necessary to get him out
there in public so he could be

seen meeting with me.

At one point, a local video news
blogger, Bob Norman, finds Rothstein

martini with his attorney at a local
bar.

How do you make it right, Scott?

I'm not answering any questions, Bob.
I'm going to make it right.

He thought he was getting a big scoop.

He actually helped the cover story.

With his assignment for the feds behind
him, Rothstein is arrested.

He sought to buy power and influence at
the expense of his clients, and

instead... has potentially bought
himself a lengthy prison sentence.

Two months later, Rothstein pleads
guilty to five counts of racketeering,

and money laundering.

He faces the possibility of 100 years in
prison.

But in the last month, he does
everything he can to get a reduced

Up next on American Greed, the price
Rothstein pays for his ponzi.

People say, do you feel bad for him at
all? I say, are you kidding me?

Not at all. This guy is getting exactly
what he deserves.

Just a year ago, Scott Rothstein was on
top of the world.

As head of one of South Florida's
largest law firms, Rothstein has it all.

High -priced real estate, fancy cars,
gold watches, political connections.

But in January 2010, he pleads guilty to
scamming hundreds of investors in South

Florida's largest Ponzi scheme.

And the feds take everything.

Now, with his fate in the hands of a
federal judge, he pleads for leniency.

I only ask that you deal with me fairly,
he writes, and that based upon the fact

that the record now exists from my
decision to return from Morocco and all

I have done since, that I am truly a
changed man.

Meanwhile, a government auction is
underway.

Potential bidders gather to cash in on
the remains of his fallen empire.

This is about justice today. This is
about getting money back

into the hands of the people that were
defrauded.

The display of excess on sale today is a
tribute to Scott Rothstein's greed.

We're talking about the most exotic
cars, the most expensive cars that a

consumer can get their hands on. There's
a Bugatti worth over a million dollars.

There's a Lamborghini, a Rolls Royce.

Scott himself readily admits that he
became obsessive in his

acquisition of material possessions.

I mean, he amassed over 200 watches,
over 100 suits.

nine or ten cars at any one point in
time, a number of homes.

It was beyond reason.

In the end, the auction nets $5 .8
million.

But with almost $400 million owed to
victims, the government is searching for

stolen money everywhere.

Florida Governor Charlie Crist and other
politicians hurry to return tainted

donations.

American Express agrees to pay back a
portion of the $21 million charged in

four years to Rothstein's account.

And charities like Holy Cross Hospital,
which received $1 million, and Joe

DiMaggio's Children's Hospital, given
$800 ,000, are forced to give back much

-needed funds.

He used charities.

There's greedy people in this world.

but to step on the back of a dozen
charitable organizations, but then to

them in the dust in a situation where
they were going to have to give back

money, cut services, lay off employees.

This guy doesn't deserve to see the
light of day.

And investors, too, are going after
their money, claiming that Rothstein had

lot of help in his fraud, starting with
the banks.

Obviously, the allegations at this point
was that Scott was receiving some sort

of favoritism from the banks he dealt
with. All I can tell you is that in my

experience as a securities lawyer, when
a bank has hundreds of millions of

dollars washing in and out of their
accounts on a very frequent basis,

should be raised.

Red flags are raised.

A week after his prized possessions are
auctioned off, Rothstein faces the

music.

Prosecutors request a sentence of 40
years in prison, but the judge slaps

Rothstein with a 50 -year term with the
goal of sending a message to future

schemers. The judge says Rothstein
infiltrated so many parts of our daily

Politics, sports, charities, law
enforcement, the judiciary, the legal

profession. The society page.

When someone of that perceived stature
is found to be a cheat, public

is important in determining adequate
deterrence.

You know, people say, do you feel bad
for him at all? Are you kidding me?

Not at all. This guy is getting exactly
what he deserves.

He should not be walking around free. He
ruined people's lives.

The judge orders Rothstein to pay
victims $363 million in restitution.

But authorities know they can only
return a small fraction of that money.

Attorney Seth Lehrman convinces the
judge that victims like his clients, the

Figueroa family, whose settlement money
was stolen, should be paid first.

There's a big difference between them
and investors.

Investing is...

something that inherently has risk,
whereas our clients were not supposed to

suffer any risk by having their
attorneys hold their money in trust.

Today,

Rothstein is in a federal prison in a
witness protection program.

His meteoric rise and his stunning
collapse took just over 10 years.

And now, Fort Lauderdale faces the fact
the town was taken for a ride.

Fort Lauderdale's a small town, and it
sort of makes us look foolish somewhat

have invited him into the community at a
high level and have him trick and fool

everybody.

Scott Rothstein did not build his
reputation.

He bought it.

He bought it.

And people were suckers for being bought
so quickly, so easily.

Repair and Synchronization by
Easy Subtitles Synchronizer 1.0.0.0