Fort Lauderdale attorney, Scott Rothstein’s alleged $1 billion Ponzi scheme is beginning to unravel, and the forty-seven-year-old is not anticipated to come out on top.

Scott Rothstein is a 47-year-old Fort Lauderdale attorney who spun himself into the spotlight, and serious allegations, when his conspicuous spending, political contributions, and charitable donations began to seem extraordinarily outlandish in the recent years.

The alleged fraud that Rothstein is accused of has warped its way into the homes of very unsuspecting individuals, including a Miami man who owns an ink cartridge business who put up $2 million, an 80-year-old Fort Lauderdale couple who put up $1 million, and a Palm Beach County man who fears he has lost his life savings of $135,000 he put into a Rothstein law firm escrow account to close on a condo.

So how did all of this happen? According to a lawsuit filed last week, “investment consortiums were formed, middlemen took a commission on the deals, and investors brought in other investors for a percentage of the profits. Meanwhile, financial advisers and bank officials reassured investors that their money was safe.”

When investors didn’t get paid in late October, things started to seem out of place. What made it worse was when Rothstein disappeared to Morocco on a chartered Gulfstream V jet in a hurry. Not suspicious at all…

After a week, he returned to Fort Lauderdale and was faced with an enormous federal investigation into what an FBI agent called “one of the largest investment frauds ever in South Florida.”

The culprits? Well, Scott Rothstein to start with, but as the investigation ensues, the law firm where Rothstein allegedly did his dirty work, the Rothstein Rosendeldt Adler law firm, has suffered repercussions as well. The firm had 70 attorneys and approximately 80 support staff who all saw the firm plunge into involuntary bankruptcy. The firm is all but dissolved at the moment, and lawsuits continue to flood Rothstein, his firm, and the bank that some investors allege was complicit in the scheme.

Via: The Sun Sentinel