Auction of Ponzi Schemer Rothstein's Cars, Boats Nets $5.8 Million
Some of the bidders at yesterday’s auction of vehicles purchased by Scott Rothstein had their own axes to grind with the ex-attorney who pleaded guilty to masterminding a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.
Businessman Alan Winter, who chairs the fundraising committee of Broward County Crime Stoppers, told South Florida Business Journal that Rothstein had once backed out of a promise to pay a $100,000 reward for the group. He was interested in a 1967 Corvette convertible at yesterday’s auction at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale. Another auction attendee, George Ford, told the publication that he felt a Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler had botched a lawsuit filed on his behalf.
But many would-be bidders were not eager to identify themselves to the media.
“This whole thing has a bad air about it,” said one attendee who wouldn’t give his name to the Daily Business Review. “We are all here because of one man’s criminal greed.”
About 200 attended the U.S. Treasury Department auction which netted nearly $5.8 billion to reimburse victims of the scheme. The highest bid of the day was $2.51 million for Rothstein’s 87-foot yacht, the Daily Business Review reported. A total of 18 cars and watercraft were put on the auction block, South Florida Business Journal reported in an earlier article.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Would-Be Buyers Ogle Ex-Attorney Scott Rothstein’s Forfeited Classic Sports Cars”
