Feds raid office of politically connected lawyer as firm shuts down

Scott Rothstein with partners Stuart Rosenfelt and Russell Adler

Less than a week after a major Fort Lauderdale-based law firm shut its doors due to a financial scandal, federal agents raided the law firm’s offices on Wednesday evening. The law firm of Rothstein Rosenfelt Adler (RRA), and it’s CEO Scott Rothstein, have been embroiled in a mix of allegations including that he used the firm to defraud the firm’s investors out of over $400 million. Rothstein himself is a major contributor, largely to Republican officials, but also to a few Democrats.

News of this major story first began to leak out on Friday, just as Rothstein left the U.S. for a weekend trip to Morocco. On Monday morning, the firm filed a lawsuit in Broward County Circuit Court seeking to close the firm and place it into receivership. The firm’s pleadings, filed by former U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey, accused Rothstein, the firm’s CEO, of scamming the firm’s investors by convincing them to invest in fake structured settlements in civil rights cases, promising huge returns. According to firm partner, Stuart Rosenfelt, Rothstein had complete and sole control over the finances of the firm, while he himself handled the law practice.
 

Dan Marino with Scott Rothstein at a charity jewelry auction

Rothstein used the firm’s financial success to his political advantage. Having donated large sums of money to major Republicans, including the Republican Party itself, Florida Governor Charlie Crist, and Broward Sheriff Al Lamberti, Jr., Rothstein’s office had photos of him with Crist, Lamberti, former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani (R), Senator John McCain (R-AZ), California’s Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and Senator Joseph Liberman (I-CT), among others. Rothstein apparently had donated to the Florida Democratic party in the past, as well as to Florida’s Chief Financial Officer, Alex Sink (D), currently running for Governor.

Governor Crist has already acknowledged his ties to Rothstein, which he described as not-so-close, and has called on the legislature for stricter anti-corruption laws. On Tuesday, Crist’s campaign also returned $9,600 directly contributed by Rothstein for his Senate campaign. Other candidates and officials did the same.

On Tuesday, Broward Circuit Judge Jeffery Streitfeld appointed Miami-Dade senior Circuit Judge Herbert Stettin as Receiver, giving him complete physical and financial control of the firm. Judge Stettin is expected to hire accountants and others to evaluate the status of the firm and how it should be dissolved in relation to the claims made by swindled investors. Rothstein also returned to the U.S. to face federal investigators on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Federal agents from the FBI and IRS executed a search warrant RRA’s offices from 7:45pm to 3:15am the next morning, with the full cooperation of Stuart Rosenfelt, who provided access to Rothstein’s private sanctuary office. The agents seized 44 boxes of materials, and are probing Rothstein’s real estate dealings as well.

Coffey opened the RRA offices to the media on Thursday, providing a detailed look into the reclusive, inner sanctuary from where Rothstein ran the firm’s finances and his financial scheme. Protected by microphones and video cameras all around the RRA offices, as well as a unique and dedicated controlled-access entry system just into Rothstein’s own executive office, Rothstein himself prevented even his law firms own staff from easy access to their CEO. He even had his own secret elevator that took him straight to a special section of the parking Garage dedicated just for his use. His office was full of photographs of himself with various political figures and sports celebrities. Rothstein had also hired off-duty Fort Lauderdale police officers to provide security in his offices and elsewhere, including his two multi-million dollar homes and the Bova chain of restaurants, of which he was a partner.