United States v. Scott W. Rothstein

CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
DecidedJune 12, 2013
Docket11-10676
StatusPublished

This text of United States v. Scott W. Rothstein (United States v. Scott W. Rothstein) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Scott W. Rothstein, (11th Cir. 2013).

Opinion

Case: 11-10676 Date Filed: 06/12/2013 Page: 1 of 40

[PUBLISH]

IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT ________________________

No. 11-10676 ________________________

D.C. Docket No. 0:09-cr-60331-JIC-1

In Re: ROTHSTEIN, ROSENFELDT, ADLER, P.A., a.k.a. RRA, Debtors. ____________________________________________

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,

Plaintiff - Appellee,

versus

SCOTT W. ROTHSTEIN,

Defendant - Appellee.

TODD D. SNYDER,

Intervenor-Interested Party-Appellee,

HERBERT STETTIN, Chapter 11 Trustee,

Interested Party - Appellant,

REGIONS BANK, Case: 11-10676 Date Filed: 06/12/2013 Page: 2 of 40

Petitioner,

SOLAR AIR, INC.,

Interpleader.

________________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Florida ________________________

(June 12, 2013)

Before TJOFLAT and MARTIN, Circuit Judges, and BUCKLEW, * District Judge.

TJOFLAT, Circuit Judge:

A number of criminal statutes within the Federal Code mandate that a

defendant, when convicted, forfeit to the United States as part of his sentence the

lucre he acquired as a result of his criminal activity. In this case, the defendant, a

lawyer, deposited the lucre in his law firm’s bank accounts, where it was

commingled with the firm’s receipts from legitimate clients. The question this

appeal presents is whether the money in the bank accounts at the time the

defendant was charged is subject to forfeiture. We hold that it is not.

* Honorable Susan C. Bucklew, United States District Judge for the Middle District of Florida, sitting by designation. 2 Case: 11-10676 Date Filed: 06/12/2013 Page: 3 of 40

I.

A.

On November 10, 2009, four creditors of a Miami, Florida, law firm of

seventy attorneys, Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler P.A. (“RRA”), petitioned the

Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Florida to reorganize the law firm

under Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code.1 Two weeks later, the

Bankruptcy Court appointed Herbert Stettin trustee of the bankruptcy estate (the

“Trustee”). On December 1, 2009, the United States Attorney for the Southern

District of Florida filed a five-count information charging Scott Rothstein, “a

shareholder, Chairman and CEO of RRA,”2 with conspiring to violate the

Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), 18 U.S.C. §

1962(c),3 by employing RRA to engage in a pattern of racketeering activity,

principally mail and wire fraud and money laundering, and with conspiring to

commit those substantive offenses.4 These charges were based on a common

allegation that Rothstein operated a “Ponzi” scheme 5 by

1 11 U.S.C. § 101 et seq. (2006). 2 Information, Record, vol. 1, no. 1, at 4, ¶ 7.A. 3 RICO was enacted by section 901(a) of the Organized Crime Control Act of 1970 (Pub. L. No. 91–452, 84 Stat. 922, enacted October 15, 1970), and is codified as Chapter 96 of Title 18 of the United States Code, 18 U.S.C. §§ 1961–1968. 4 Count 1 alleged a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1962(d), which provides that “[i]t shall be unlawful for any person to conspire to violate any of the provisions of subsection (a), (b), or (c) of this section.” Count 1 alleged that Rothstein conspired to violate subsection (c) which states 3 Case: 11-10676 Date Filed: 06/12/2013 Page: 4 of 40

that “[i]t shall be unlawful for any person employed by or associated with any enterprise engaged in, or the activities of which affect, interstate or foreign commerce, to conduct or participate, directly or indirectly, in the conduct of such enterprise’s affairs through a pattern of racketeering activity.” 18 U.S.C. § 1962(c). According to Count 1, RRA was the “enterprise,” and the “pattern of racketeering activity” included mail fraud, wire fraud, and money laundering in the execution of the Ponzi scheme described in the text following this footnote. Count 2 alleged a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1956(h), a conspiracy to violate 18 U.S.C. §§ 1956 and 1957. Section 1956, “Laundering of monetary instruments,” states, in pertinent part: (a)(1) Whoever, knowing that the property involved in a financial transaction represents the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity, conducts or attempts to conduct such a financial transaction which in fact involves the proceeds of specified unlawful activity-- (A)(i) with the intent to promote the carrying on of specified unlawful activity; or .... (B) knowing that the transaction is designed in whole or in part-- (i) to conceal or disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, or the control of the proceeds of specified unlawful activity; or (ii) to avoid a transaction reporting requirement under State or Federal law, shall be sentenced to a fine of not more than $500,000 or twice the value of the property involved in the transaction, whichever is greater, or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both. For purposes of this paragraph, a financial transaction shall be considered to be one involving the proceeds of specified unlawful activity if it is part of a set of parallel or dependent transactions, any one of which involves the proceeds of specified unlawful activity, and all of which are part of a single plan or arrangement. The term “specified unlawful activity” includes mail fraud and wire fraud. 18 U.S.C. § 1956(c)(7). According to Count 2, Rothstein, in executing his Ponzi scheme, laundered the money he received from his investors by depositing it in RRA’s bank accounts. Section 1957, “Engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity,” makes it unlawful to “engage[] or attempt to engage in a monetary transaction in criminally derived property of a value greater than $10,000 [that] is derived from specified unlawful activity.” 18 U.S.C. § 1957(a). According to Count 2, Rothstein structured his deposits into RRA’s bank accounts in an effort to avoid violating § 1957. Count 3 alleged that Rothstein conspired to violate 18 U.S.C. §§ 1341 and 1343 under 18 U.S.C. § 1349, which makes such conspiracy an offense against the United States. According to Count 3, the object of Rothstein’s conspiracy was the execution of his Ponzi scheme via the U.S. mail and interstate wire systems. Counts 4 and 5 alleged two violations of 18 U.S.C. § 1343. Each count alleged that Rothstein transmitted to a bank by wire funds he had fraudulently obtained in executing his Ponzi scheme.

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