Rothstein Firm Seeks Allegedly Missing $100M to $185M; Is He in Morocco?
Updated: Between $100 million and $185 million in is allegedly missing from investor trust accounts that made use of the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler name, the law firm’s president told the South Florida Business Journal today after a court hearing.
Meanwhile, five lawyers have already left the more than 70-attorney Fort Lauderdale-based international firm, although others will stay with or without pay, according to president Stuart Rosenfeldt. He vows to start a new law practice from the apparent ashes of his partnership with Scott Rothstein, although the Rothstein firm presently remains open for business.
(As a subsequent ABAJournal.com post details, the firm’s Venezuela branch office has also defected and a Miami lawyer says he put the feds on Rothstein’s trail because the investments offered seemed too good to be true.)
A Broward County Circuit Court judge said at the hearing that he may be inclined to appoint Rosenfeldt, who is an employment practitioner, as a receiver for the well-known Fort Lauderdale-based legal partnership. This would avoid the considerable potential cost of putting a court-appointed receiver in charge, the Business Journal notes.
The firm filed suit today against Rothstein, its managing partner, chairman and chief executive officer, accusing him of orchestrating the alleged “substantial misappropriation” of investor funds and seeking a court-ordered dissolution and receivership, as detailed in an earlier ABAJournal.com post. The firm has also asked the Florida Bar to help resolve the situation.
The 47-year-old Rothstein could not be reached for comment, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports. However, his lawyer, Marc Nurik, says he is away for a few days to “clear his head” and will be back by the end of the week to “straighten this thing out.”
Rothstein leases a private jet, and there is speculation that he may now be in Morocco, reports the South Florida Sun Sentinel. The reason why: Rosenfeldt says Rothstein circulated an “urgent” e-mail around the firm several weeks ago seeking information for a client who needed to know which countries don’t have extradition treaties with the United States or Israel. Morocco was mentioned in the resulting chatter.
Rosenfeldt told the newspaper’s Broward Politics blog that he had caught Rothstein in some “white lies” over the years. But “the kinds of small lies I caught him in were nothing to lead you to conclude your partner was running a giant scam out of your law firm.”
Rothstein and the law firm have contributed generously to politicians and charities and news that his fiscal management is being questioned has led a number of recipients to check their coffers. Among those now “monitoring” the situation are Florida Democratic and Republican party organizations, each of which has received hundreds of thousands of dollars, reports the Post on Politics blog of the Palm Beach Post.
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Rothstein Rosenfeldt Seeks to Dissolve, Says MP Suspected of Wrongdoing Won’t Go”
South Florida Business Journal: “RRA’s demise to have trickle-down impact”
South Florida Sun-Sentinel: “Key dates and data in the life and career of attorney Scott Rothstein”
Updated on Nov. 3 to include information from subsequent ABAJournal.com post.
