How many Ponzi schemes can there be? I don’t know, but it seems like every day another one is discovered.  Here’s one in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where attorney Scott Rothstein’s suspected  Ponzi scheme  may have taken  $1.2 billion from investors. One investor  calls it a “tragedy” who says he is at risk for tens of millions of dollars. The scandal has sent lawyers, investors, and politicians alike in a tizzy while investigators are scrambling to learn exactly how much money has been lost.

Rothstein, a partner of the law firm Rothstein Rosefeldt and Adler, is suspected of running a covert investment scheme on the side and may have walked away with “substantial sums” put up by investors, according to a lawsuit brought by his partner, Stuart Rosenfeldt.

In what federal authorities say is the biggest fraud case in South Florida history, the 47-year-old faces five counts of racketeering and fraud related to his alleged scheme. Prosecutors say Rothstein ran the scheme out of the 70-lawyer Fort Lauderdale law firm where he was CEO, swindling his own friends and clients. He allegedly forged federal court documents, including judges’ signatures to make his investors believe the settlements they were buying into were legitimate

He once graced the society pages of local newspapers and gave big to Florida politicians, but on Tuesday, Fort Lauderdale attorney Scott Rothstein was arrested on federal fraud charges, accused of running a $1.2 billion mini-Madoff Ponzi scheme. If convicted, he could be sentenced to up to 100 years in prison. How did he spend all that money? Well, the fed’s grabbed $60 million of his toys, including  20 luxury cars, 15 real-estate properties, an 87-foot yacht, 304 pieces of jewelry and $12 million stashed in Moroccan banks

Click HERE to read the federal charges against Rothstein.

Source: ABC News