Convicted Ponzi Schemer Makes Shocking Allegations
MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Hundreds more pages of transcripts have been released offering fresh insight into Scott Rothstein's elaborate Ponzi scheme that unraveled two years ago.
The disbarred lawyer is serving a fifty year prison term for operating his $1.4 billion dollar scheme, the largest fraud in South Florida history.
As we now know, Rothstein built his phony fortune on fake legal settlements.
Rothstein is shedding a harsh spotlight on his former firm, Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler, the banks he did business with and law enforcement, as lawyers trying to recover money for investors, questioned him at the federal courthouse in Miami last week.
Talking about his self-described "rockstar" lifestyle, Rothstein said under oath, "I had some partners that couldn't come to work without smoking pot. I also found they were dealing drugs in the office."
Then Rothstein dropped a bombshell.
"The police also were sleeping with my escorts," said Rothstein. "Broward Sheriff's Office, Ft. Lauderdale Police weren't going to bother me. I could have all the escorts I wanted."
Fort Lauderdale police deny any criminal wrongdoing and BSO is looking into the allegations.
But it doesn't end there.
Rothstein boasts that prominent people were always up to see him in his lavish high rise office on Las Olas Boulevard in Ft. Lauderdale.
"Mob guys, law enforcement, even judges from time to time. Not federal judges, would show up. I would see them."
When asked what other crimes he committed, Rothstein claimed, "money laundering, extortion, physical violence, public corruption," and "bribing law enforcement, paying law enforcement to do illegal activity."
When one lawyer asked Rothstein, "Are you trying to get out of jail?"
He replied, "Yes sir."
The lawyer asked, "and you are using your same techniques, lying to other people in order to accomplish that, isn't that true?"
"No sir," answered Rothstein.
Fort Lauderdale Police Spokesperson Frank Sousa released a statement Wednesday in response to Rothstein's allegations.
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department has complete faith in the federal investigation which, to our knowledge, has not generated criminal charges against
any employees of the Department. Furthermore, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department's Office of Internal Affairs conducted an administrative investigation, inclusive of all the information available to the Department at the time, to determine if any employees violated Department policy. Numerous employees were found to have violated policy and appropriate corrective action was taken. That investigation was then submitted to the Broward State Attorney's Office for their independent review. Their review resulted in no criminal charges being levied against any employee of the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. Obviously, if any specific allegations of criminal or administrative misconduct, that we were previously unaware of, are brought to the attention of the Department, a thorough and objective investigation will commence.
While the depositions concluded last week, the judge hearing the case may decide Rothstein will give more testimony in January.
