“Obviously, Preve, Levin and Banyan were desperate to keep Scott’s (Rothstein’s) investment schemes afloat, whether they knew that he was running a Ponzi scheme, as the investors’ lawyers claim, or not,’’ Malkus writes.
The bilked investors also included automobile magnates, large charities, restaurateurs, club owners; law partners, politicians, friends, business associates and banks such as TD Bank and Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust, to whom Rothstein sent e-mails threatening to close his falsely credited accounts when they objected to his mounting overdrafts. He had computer technicians create a phony TD Bank Web site to allocate non-existent funds to RRA’s account.
Rothstein’s transgressions are fascinating, up to a point, so Malkus tries to flesh out the saga with the “why’’ of his corruption, padding psychological theories with numerous (and often repeated) vignettes about Rothstein’s spending habits, his consumption of overpriced real estate in Florida, Delaware and New York, and his maintaining a roster of women for hire (he told federal officials RRA spent $60,000 per month to pay for escorts for friends, clients, business pals and police).
“The Ultimate Ponzi’’ could be written in a tighter, more lucid prose and anecdotes about Rothstein’s excesses are recycled once too often. The book's editor's also missed some spelling errors.
Moreover, the “why" of Rothstein’s lust for ever more money, power and goods eludes Malkus: the author says Rothstein was raised in a loving family in the Bronx, and that as a young labor lawyer in Florida he had a reputation for reliability and fairness. His first wife, Kimberly, eventually became a lawyer specializing in worker’s compensation cases. She does not contribute to the book. Neither does Rothstein’s second wife, also named Kimberly, a 38-year-old former state karate champion who met Rothstein at a party and later became his favorite bartender, then his wife in a $1 million ceremony.
Most of the solid information that Malkus can piece together about Rothstein’s early life and his relationships with his wives, family members and business associates comes from other sources, chiefly blogger and Florida journalist Bob Norman. Malkus did interview two Florida women who say they were long-term girlfriends of Rothstein’s. They describe him as sweet and funny, a wonderful piano player and generous, until the last year of the Ponzi scheme, when he grew increasingly distracted and anxious.
Small wonder: Organized crime figures were among those said to be seeking vengeance for losing huge amounts in Rothstein’s schemes. Surrendering to federal law enforcement in 2009, Rothstein departed from Madoff in another important respect: He cooperated with investigators, implicating partners and subordinates in his schemes.
His second wife, Kimberly Rothstein, pleaded guilty on February 1 to conspiracy and obstruction charges for a scheme to launder jewelry bought with Ponzi money, and to hide the sales from investigators. She faces up to five years in prison.
Malkus lets his attitude about Rothstein shine through: “What we are now witnessing is Scott’s long con, turning evidence against friends, family members, employees, and co-workers—anyone whose prosecution might induce Judge (James I.) Cohn to reduce Scott’s prison sentence and let him out of jail.’’