Lawyer Kusnick gets prison for scamming clients

By Palm Beach Business.com

FORT LAUDERDALE — A former lawyer in the now-defunct Rothstein Rosenfeldt & Adler law firm will be spending the next two years in federal prison after pleading guilty to charges that he helped scam two of the firm’s clients.

Federal Judge Kenneth A. Marra also gave Howard Kusnick, 59 of Tamarac, two years of supervised release and ordered him to pay $310,000 in restitution. Kusnick pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud earlier this summer and must begin serving his sentence by Nov. 4.

According to court documents court and statements made in court, Kusnick while at the Rothstein law firm authored a letter supposedly settling a lawsuit in favor of the firm’s clients. However, there was no settlement offer because the Rothstein firm never filed suit on behalf of the clients. The whole purpose of the letter was to make the clients think that the firm was vigorously pursuing the matter.

The Rothstein firm collapsed in November 2009 amid charged that it was little more than a Ponzi scheme. Prosecutors allege that it took investors for $1.2 billion. Law firm founder Scott Rothstein is serving a 50-year sentence for racketeering.

coming soon the daily bulletin