Chuck Malkus really wants you to hate Scott Rothstein. Describing the disgraced and hilariously ostentatious Rothstein, Malkus uses phrases like "orgy of fraud" and "one big rotting tapestry" and -- our favorite -- the "Pandora's Box that is Scott's brain."
Malkus' book about Rothstein, Ultimate Ponzi, was released last week and, according to Malkus, is selling out just about everywhere. With a Photoshopped image of a grinning Rothstein draped in gold watches against a neon-green background, who could resist it?
After reading the book, which Malkus spent two and a half years producing, two things immediately become clear. Scott Rothstein, who bilked $1.2 billion out of customers in a sprawling Ponzi scheme, is apparently scum both inside and out.
But, chubby countenance aside, the ladies loved him. Dude got mad action because, according to Malkus, he was short and could sing. (The money perhaps had something to do with it as well.)
"Scott had relationships with women, which were, to say the least, not only exploitative but also extraordinarily complex," Malkus wrote, calling him a "cad" and a "womanizer."
Malkus, a big-time local PR agent with clients such as Dan Marino's restaurant chain, nicknamed each member of Rothstein's harem. There was his first wife, "Kim No. 1." Then his second wife, "Kim No. 2." One of Rothstein's girlfriends was named "Ms. Lauderdale"; another, "Ms. North Beach.
Left out? "Ms. 201 North Bay Drive Apartment 3B You have to Jiggle the Knob a Little When Turning the Key."
Despite the wanton absurdity traipsing through the book, Malkus is a tad stone-faced when discussing it.
And though he never actually spoke with Rothstein beyond a few text messages, Malkus had no problem diving inside the financier's head.
He said, "Scott was more out-in-front than anyone in South Florida. He was flashy as a peacock, parading around wearing six-figure watches. He was the opposite of Bernie Madoff. He was something that we've never seen before and hopefully will never see again."
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