Rothstein Clawback Suits Seek $9.8M from Jeweler, $1.5M from Bugatti Seller, $57K from Cigar Store
The bankruptcy trustee settling the affairs of onetime law firm chief and convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein is targeting the sellers of some of his favorite things in an effort to recover assets for creditors.
Clawback suits filed today in federal court in South Florida seek $9.8 million from Levinson Jewelers of Fort Lauderdale, $1.5 million from Braman Motors of Miami, from which he allegedly bought a Bugatti, and a little over $57,000 from Muhammad “Moe” Sohail’s Ultimate Cigars in Fort Lauderdale, among other targets, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The suit against Levinson alleges that Rothstein was a close personal friend of the store owners and spent nearly $11 million there, between 2006 and 2010, outside the normal course of business for both his Rothstein Rosenfeld Adler law firm and the store, explains the South Florida Business Journal.
However, attorney Jan Atlas called the suit baseless in a written statement provided to the Sun Sentinel and said the store sold jewelry in good faith with “no knowledge of the events surrounding Mr. Rothstein.”
Convicted in a $1.2 billion swindle involving the sale of future income from nonexistent structured settlements to investors, Rothstein has been disbarred and is serving a 50-year prison term.
