Though disgraced and disbarred Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein is packed off to prison for good, the slimy bog he created is still sucking in others from his now-dismantled Fort Lauderdale law firm.
Ex-partner Stuart Rosenfeldt faced a deposition yesterday inquiring into spending on his firm credit card and one sticky little piece of info: on the day Rothstein skipped the country for Morrocco, he wrote Rosenfeldt a half-million-dollar check to cover taxes for businesses the two were partnered in outside their RRA law firm.
The memo line did read "Repayment of Monies re: taxes," but there's a hitch: Rosenfeldt hadn't paid any, and didn't owe any.
The 55-year-old, now facing a suit from bankruptcy trustees as well as a $10.5 million dollar tax lien from the IRS, is accused of accepting more than $9 million in compensation from Rothstein he didn't earn, including a million charged on a firm credit card.
Rosenfeldt refused to incriminate himself Friday, and invoked his Fifth Amendment rights.
Repeatedly.
Over and over.
Local
Seven hundred times, in fact, according to a transcript obtained by the Sun-Sentinel, which must have eventually felt like the adult equivalent of "I know you are, but what am I?" to exhasperated investigators.
Fortunately for Rosenfeldt -- at least in this particular instance -- he returned the check uncashed. Unfortunately, it doesn't help his claim that he had no idea he was paid money he didn't earn.
But the $500,000 check isn't even the strangest thing that happened surrounding Rothstein's short stint as a fugitive in Morrocco. When he returned to the states, Rothstein asked American Express to convert 20 million credit card points into 800 individual $100 gift cards.
Apparently he figured if he went on the lam again, he could pass for Reggie Bush in the Kim K. days: just a man laboring to carry a giant box stuffed with plastic.
