There's remorse, and then there's the sob story that comes just before sentencing. You can imagine in which category most people will place the cloying 12-page letter Fort Lauderdale fraudster Scott Rothstein wrote to Judge James Cohn last week.
In the remarkable missive, which details an inferiority complex over his humble Bronx beginnings, the rise of the billion-dollar Ponzi scheme that defrauded untold numbers of people, and two suicide attempts, Rothstein begged the judge not to sentence him to life in prison this coming Wednesday.
Instead, he asks to be "[given] an opportunity to live at least part of the remainder of my life as a free man, with an opportunity to do some good in this world.''
He must mean a second chance to do good.
I do not really possess the words to adequately explain the magnitude of what I have done, why I did it, and the overwhelming remorse and self-loathing I feel about myself and the intense harm and pain I have inflicted upon innocent people who trusted me and loved me only to be deceived by me; my actions can only be described in the most despicable of terms: I committed multiple acts of financial crimes against people that placed their trust in me. All in the name of ego and greed.
The letter, written Wednesday and released Friday, is the first time Rothstein has told his story to the public. He wrote that his crimes began out of a desire for him and his firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, to appear succesful.
I started by 'borrowing' money from people I knew who trusted me...but rather than simply being honest with them and telling them I needed a loan (my ego would never allow myself to let someone else think I needed money -- that was a sign of failure and of weakness), I concocted elaborate lies...The facade I had masterminded made my word as good as gold.
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And though I clearly had the ability and opportunity to stop the forward motion of what would be a series of many despicable acts...I never sincerely attempted to stop.
Ultimately, he said, the scheme had grown so large he was "literally spending almost every waking hour doing something to prevent it from blowing up in my face."
It was constantly on the verge of collapse. And yet, I never even tried to stop the bleeding. I kept spending like it was really my money; more expensive cars, boats, homes, offices, jewelry...
I can remember just days before deciding to flee to Morocco, sitting in my shower, in my business suit, crying, with a .357 Magnum up against my head...But it turns out that I had one last of selfishness and greed in me. I decided to flee the country.
In Morocco, Rothstein writes, he drank a bottle of vodka but couldn't bring himself to swallow pills he'd lined up.
Suddenly, for reasons that to this moment remain a complete mystery to me, it all became crystal clear.
As simply as I had started this life of lies and deceit I would bring it to an end. But not by killing myself. That would just be one final act of selfishness. I would end it by returning home, turning myself in, and starting the process of making right all the hard I had caused.
Rothstein, who turns 48 the day after his sentencing, will be 78 years old on release if he is given the reduced 30-year sentence his lawyer says is appropriate if the judge disregards the "media-induced hysteria."
"No doubt, his ostentatious behavior, outrageously obsessive materialism and 'in your face' public persona have contributed to, if not been the primary cause of, the unprecedented media coverage and public vilification of Mr. Rothstein," attorney Mark Nurik wrote. "Had Mr. Rothstein conducted his affairs more privately and have been more [discreet] in displaying his wealth, no doubt the level of public scorn and [schadenfreude] would be considerably less."
Perhaps, but less schadenfreude doesn't lessen his crime. Rothstein pled guilty in January to the massive $1.2 billion fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 100 years.
