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Scott Rothstein's wife charged with hiding assets
By Palm Beach Business.com
FORT LAUDERDALE — The wife of former attorney and convicted scammer Scott W. Rothstein has been charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy to commit money laundering and tampering with a witness as part a scheme to conceal more than $1 million in jewelry that should have been surrendered to the government.
Federal authorities allege that Kimberly Wendell Rothstein, 38, sold or attempted to sell the jewelry, bought with proceeds from Scott Rothstein’s billion-dollar scam, just as the Feds moved to seize it. Scott Rothstein, as part of his plea deal, agreed to surrender millions of dollars worth of real estate, boats, cars, watches, and sports memorabilia, along with the jewelry in question.
Scott Rothstein founded the law firm of Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler and built it into one of Fort Lauderdale’s higher profile practices. He also made it one of the largest scams in South Florida history.
According to court records and statements made in court, Rothstein used the firm to convince investors to lend money to nonexistent borrowers supposedly for short-term business needs.
He also got investors to fund loans to the firm’s clients who had won confidential lawsuit settlements worth hundreds of thousands of dollars or even a million or more. Rothstein told the investors that his clients were willing to pay high interest rates for the loans.
Two problems: neither the clients nor the settlements were real. Investors were taken for about $1.2 billion.
As part of a plea deal reached in November 2009, Scott Rothstein agreed to surrender whatever possession he had that had been bought with proceeds of the scam. So when Internal Revenue Service agents showed up on her door, Kimberly Rothstein helped them search the house and retrieve whatever items were to be seized.
One problem: according to court records, however, Kimberly Rothstein had already sold the jewelry.
Also charged: Stacie Weisman, 49, Scott F. Saidel, 45, Eddy Marin, 50, and Patrick Daoud, 54.
