Rothstein: Cop committed "various illegal acts" for him
A cop on the take, organized crime, fraudulent legal billing, loose diamonds and scams on top of scams — in other words, Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein is testifying again.
A police officer was essentially on the payroll of the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm, committing "various illegal acts" for the now-disgraced lawyer and his clients, Rothstein said. The officer even showed up in uniform at the Fort Lauderdale offices of a cruise line as part of an elaborate charade to stop the business' chairman from detecting the embezzlement of hundreds of thousands of dollars, Rothstein testified.
Rothstein did not name the officer and a federal prosecutor sitting in on the testimony prevented him from even mentioning the law enforcement agency where the officer works.
The revelation was part of more than 950 pages of transcripts and exhibits released Thursday from the first four days of Rothstein's three weeks of closed-door testimony that began June 4. His deposition is a follow-up to the explosive two weeks of testimony he gave in December detailing how he built up his $1.4 billion Ponzi scheme and who helped him along the way.
Some of those implicated by Rothstein said Thursday the fraudster is back doing what he has done for years — lying. This time he's lying to get his 50-year prison sentence reduced, they said.
Rothstein, who turned 50 on Sunday, is testifying via videoconferencing from an undisclosed location while the attorneys questioning him are gathered at the Fort Lauderdale branch of the U.S. Attorney's Office. His whereabouts have been unknown since he was placed in a witness protection program within the federal prison system.
This round of questioning primarily involves cases filed by bankruptcy attorneys attempting to recover investors' lost funds. While the December deposition gave a big picture of Rothstein's machinations, this time he's being asked about specific instances of where the money went — whether to alleged co-conspirators, investors or businesses.
His talk about the officer in his pocket came during a compelling day of testimony about his relationship with Albert Peter, the former chief executive officer of Silversea Cruises. Rothstein alleges he helped Peter embezzle money from the company by creating phony legal billing.
Rothstein said he would do things like provide the company with an invoice for $150,000 for a phony "confidential special project" and then split the money with Peter.
Peter's attorney, Alan K. Marcus, said Rothstein's testimony is "absolutely untrue." While Rothstein may have been overbilling the cruise line, Peter had no knowledge of what was happening, Marcus said.
"Mr. Rothstein is creating a bunch of falsehoods to enamor himself with the government for purposes of self-preservation," Marcus said. "Mr. Rothstein can't show any of the money from this alleged overbilling went to Mr. Peter."
Rothstein testified Peter began to fear that Silversea's chairman, Manfredi Lefebvre, would fly in from Europe to uncover the embezzlement. That's when a plan was concocted to convince Lefebvre that he was under investigation in the United States for being involved in a prostitution ring, Rothstein said.
Rothstein said he had the uniformed police officer visit Silversea's downtown Fort Lauderdale office, pretending to look for Lefebvre.
"We had the police officer telling people that he had to find Mr. Lefebvre and that he was not going to stop until he was able to get ahold of him," Rothstein said.
Rothstein testified his law firm began working for Silversea after Peter was told to hire him by Fort Lauderdale resident Stanley Coniglio. He knew Coniglio to "be associated with an organized crime family" and become friendly with him through Thursday night meals at an Italian restaurant, Rothstein said.
"I did not want to disappoint any members of my Thursday night dinner crew," Rothstein said.
Rothstein said Coniglio eventually "requested" a new car for arranging the Silversea work and he bought him a Lexus.
Coniglio, 70, said Thursday that Rothstein is "the biggest liar" and he's never been involved with organized crime or even arrested.
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