Looks like the media-——a photog?
Rothstein was fabricating documents that supposedly memorialized the structured settlements - and then soliciting investors to buy the (supposed) stream of payments in the (supposed) settlement for a discounted up front purchase price. All of the investors he suckered in were very very big rollers - no widows, orphans or otherwise pathetic victims here. Only wealthy chumps.
Broward Circuit Judge Jeffrey Streitfeld instructed Dominion Bank, where Rothstein kept dozens of his investors' accounts, to turn over financial records related to him and his law firm.
Attorney Bill Scherer said he would file a motion to intervene on behalf of investors who claim Rothstein bilked them of at least $98 million by selling them fabricated employment-discrimination settlements and then stealing their money. Investors will assert they are "creditors" and should be allowed to block Rothstein's law firm from collecting any recovered money, including thr law firm's donations to charities and political candidates. Judge Streitfeld removed Rothstein as CEO of his law firm, which is now attempting to pick up the pieces.
Scherer said he would also file a lawsuit against Rothstein for fraudulent transfers concerning real estate and other businesses that he set up as Delaware corporations. Rothstein and some of his law associates created at least 30 shell corporations, in Florida and Delaware, and used some of them to move assets, court records show. On Aug. 10, for example, Rothstein transferred his four Castilla Isle properties to four separate companies based in Delaware, though the companies shared the Fort Lauderdale address of his law firm, 401 E. Las Olas Blvd. The same day, three other properties were transferred from Florida-based companies to Delaware companies — all with the firm's address.
Delaware is known as a state with business-friendly laws that help companies shield assets from creditors and conceal the identities of corporate officers. (NOTE Delaware has been designated the top secret dirty finances haven---more secret than a Swiss bank. All you have to do is register phony companies w/ the Secy of State in Dover.)
Federal investigators are scrutinizing Rothstein's sale of legal settlements at a discount through a tool known as "structured settlements." Rothstein is accused of asking investors to front reduced payouts to plaintiffs and then collect the difference from the full payout later. Authorities suspect the lawsuits were fiction, and investors are preparing to sue him.
The life of the high-profile lawyer who donated lavishly to charitable causes and politicians, including Gov. Charlie Crist, began to unravel in late October, when investors did not receive expected payouts and contacted federal officials. But for months the IRS had been looking at Rothstein's investment empire...... including offshore bank accounts. By then, Rothstein had taken off for Morocco, only to cut short his trip to face the federal investigation.
SOURCE Miami Herald staff writers Amy Sherman, Jay Weaver and Scott Hiaasen reporting. http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/state/federal-agents-search-lawyer-rothstein-s-estate-seize-46691.html?Palm+Beach+Post+Story+on+Rothstein+with+phot+showing+seizure+of+Ferrari=
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REFERENCE---THE MADOFF MO:
Madoff was running multiple scams with the knowledge and consent of wealthy businessman:
(1) a Ponzi fraud that made him personally wealthy;
(2) laundering tax-free money for wealthy businessmen with "foundations and charities" posing as philanthropists,
(3) IRS fraud facilitation for wealthy businessmen;
(4) a protection racket (shielding his investors from federal scrutiny);
(5) laundering tax-free money that was donated to Democrat candidates (campaign fraud).
The court appointed trustee looking into Madoff's assets unearthed a labyrinth of interrelated international funds, institutions and entities of almost unparalleled complexity and breadth...... with assets and businesses in 11 places overseas. Madoff traveled overseas frequently, ostensibly to his villa on the Riviera----the suitcases he carried were probably full of cash .....not leisure wear.