Update 3: Rothstein To Return; Firm’s Lawyers Being Laid Off
BY BUDDY NEVINS
Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler will be open for business today, but the future of the huge Las Olas law firm is in doubt as a scramble takes place to find millions in missing money.
One big question: What happened to lead partner and multi-million dollar political fund raiser Scott Rothstein? Why did he leave town mysteriously?
Sources believe tens of millions could be missing from accounts tied to Rothstein. Lawyers are attempting to find out what happened to it and whether it can be recovered.
It is a question they would like Rothstein to answer. But even Rothstein’s lawyer Marc Nurik says he doesn’t know where his client is tonight.
“He was going on a trip, Nurik said. “He always planned on coming back. All this other stuff is rumors.
“He has not fled and there are no formal charges against him in civil or criminal court to flee from, Nurik said.
Nurik said Rothstein would return to Fort Lauderdale “the beginning of the week.
Nurik and Kendell Coffey, the former U. S. Attorney for South Florida who was hired Saturday to represent the RRA firm, had no comment on the rumors that money is missing from various law firm accounts.
Coffey said that if there was any wrong doing surrounding Rothstein’s disappearance, it didn’t involve the firm.
“It does not involve the law practice, Coffey said. “The firm’s clients are all well represented.
The lawyer said there was apparently money missing from investments Rothstein created called “structured settlements,” which involved people who sell legal settlements in big cases for a lump sum of cash.
Several sources say one victim who lost money was the family of car dealers Ed and Ted Morse, who are clients of the law firm.
Coffey was hired to “investigate and make recommendations about the future of RRA.
“I’ve been asked to investigate it at light speed, Coffey said.
Sources say the firm is expected to go into court Monday morning and ask for a receiver to take over operations of RRA. This would guarantee the safety of any client money in escrow and other accounts.
Another source says that the firm is trying to head off federal or Bar investigators by going into court on its own.
The flashy law firm with its stable of dozens of big name lawyers has already started to downsize.
Several attorneys at the firm were told to come in Monday and clean out their desks. Others spent Sunday on the phone, looking for new jobs.
Rothstein is the second huge Broward political fund raiser to fall from grace in a month. Alan Mendelsohn, a Hollywood eye doctor who raised millions for mostly Republican candidates, was arrested by the FBI last month and charged with diverting money from Political Action Committees to his own use.
One beneficiary of Rothstein’s fall will most certainly be GOP gubernatorial candidate Bill McCollum. Rothstein had abandoned the Republicans to back Democratic candidate Alex Sink in the governor’s race and had vowed to raise millions for her.
Another beneficiary will be Broward’s other law firms, who may now be able to pick up RRA’s lucrative clients.
November 1st, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Wow, it was less than three weeks ago that we read this in Broward Beat:
“The bulk of Geller’s money comes from über-lawyer Scott Rothstein, who cut him a personal check for $50,000. The money went to Geller’s committee Floridians for a Stronger Tomorrow.”
http://www.browardbeat.com/geller-outraises-gunzburger/
November 1st, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Rothstein is a phony…and her eis the prrof. Even people labelled “shareholders” were NOT–it was a fraudulent title. Only Rosenfeldt was a shareholder and he was a puppet who knew nothing. Rothstein was the fraud.
November 1st, 2009 at 8:55 pm
To quote Laugh-in… “Say goodnight, Dick.”
November 1st, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Je Me:
Wow: Wasn’t it a couple of weeks before that that we read in Broward Beat that your Mom (Sue Gunzburger) took $10,000 from RRA first? Boy, what a desperate campaign. A lot of good lwyers and staff are going to lose jobs, and all you can think of is other ways to try and run a smear campaign against Geller.
Shameless.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:14 am
Gunzburger took over $12,000 from Scott Rothstein in hard money.
I hate hypocrites.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:31 am
Forgive the suggestion, but that law firm has made no sense to anybody in town since the very start. Nice people, no question about that. But nobody has the client base in Broward to afford that lifestyle for long or pay out so many huge salaries, much less justify their philanthropic largesse.
It’s just not possible and that’s been the talk of the town for months now. A time bomb was waiting to explode at RRA. It was like watching a levitation act. You know there’s a trick. But for the sake of entertainment, you suspend disbelief and say to yourself that it’s really happening.
Problem is you can’t defy gravity, and there is no such thing as magic. The other shoe in that story had to drop sooner or later because it just didn’t make any sense. Now perhaps the real story will come out, and I think it’s going to be an amazing story because of all the money involved.
When they ask Kendall Coffey to get involved, you know the shit has hit the fan.
November 2nd, 2009 at 5:35 am
For those of you that doubt, say people are jealous, say ‘you’ don’t KNOW him….well I DO…. and was screwed BIGTIME by this ‘man’….those of us who saw the shine tarnishing and had to endure this maggot and his sycophants are happy to see that SOMEONE finally had the courage amid many (I’m sure) of Rothstein’s typical threats and bullying to get this ball rolling….
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:42 am
You said it quite well forgive the suggestion, every lawyer in town knew it was only a matter of time before the firm imploded…let the shrapnel begin flying…..
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:50 am
Did you hear about the new law firm of DiJols and Gonzalez. They are opening today and have taken all of their clients with them……NONE. Buenas Suerte Julio and Pedro.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:55 am
Broward County needs to be cleaned out from head to toe.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:31 am
Ed Morse lost millions in the scam. I wonder how he feels about Les Stracher, who brought his account to Rothstein. I just saw Stracher trading in his leased Caddy for a new Honda Fit from Maroone.
November 2nd, 2009 at 8:32 am
Will somebody tell Ken Jenne, if he is looking for work I’m looking for someone to clean my house. He has to do windows.
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:40 am
I noticed a foul odor when RRA hired Jenne, and eyebrows were certainly raised by the sheer extravagance his lifestyle. I know plenty of successful attorneys in the area and I’ve never heard of such largesse.
I feel awful for all the staff and underling associates who will be tossed on the street in this economy.
If Rothstein is guilty, perhaps Jenne can serve as his “prison consultant.”
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:47 am
Inside information:
-Rothstein has been said to have taken off for Morroco;
-Paychecks to his employees have bounced;
-$100 million supposedly missing from the firm’s accounts.
Call you say Broweird!
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:49 am
Rothstein gave Charlie $50,000 for his birthday cake – Bring out all those donations for pay-offs. Investigate Charlie’s connections to Rothstein, Mendollsen etc!
November 2nd, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Thanks Marco Rubio, now going back to your bible-thumping religious right horse-poop rejected overwhelmingly by the voters.
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:04 pm
Nothing all day from Buddy on the Rothstein saga while the rest of the internet is afire with it. Hope he is coming up with a great inside story or maybe he is at the boat show.
FROM BUDDY: “Money, I don’t need money. People give me things…because they believe in me”…Willie Stark, All The Kings Men
“Could have been whole world – Willie Stark. The whole world – Willie Stark. Why does he do it to me – Willie Stark? Why?~ Willie Stark”…Willie Stark death scene, All The Kings Men, The Movie
November 2nd, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Hey “Broward is Corrupt”:
Ya and don’t forget to tell the Democratic Party of Florida to give back the 200k, Alex Sink, Democrat for Governor to give back the cash he laid on her, Steve Geller, Robert Wexler, and ……do I need to keep going?