Pleaded guilty in 2010
MIAMI (AP) — A federal judge won’t reduce a 50-year prison sentence for a former Florida lawyer convicted of orchestrating a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
U.S. District Judge James Cohn granted a federal prosecutor’s motion Monday to withdraw an earlier offer to reduce Scott Rothstein’s sentence. Prosecutors say Rothstein failed to comply with his plea agreement by providing false information to the government.
Rothstein’s attorney had said in court documents filed in February that Rothstein cooperated extensively with prosecutors after returning voluntarily from Morocco in 2009. More than two dozen people were convicted in the Fort Lauderdale-based scam. The papers say Rothstein also helped convict a Mafia gangster and corrupt law enforcement officers.
The 55-year-old Rothstein pleaded guilty in 2010 to running a massive fraud scheme revolving around investments in phony court settlements.