Here's the second part of Scott Rothstein's leniency letter to Judge Cohn, continued from the previous post:
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I had completely lost my moral compass. And though I clearly had the ability and opportunity to stop the forward motion of what would be a series of many despicable acts that would ultimately destroy my family, destroy my law firm, cause intense harm to people that loved me and trusted me, I never sincerely attempted to stop. I always had every intention of repaying the money. I had exit strategies to pay everyone off and move forward. And in the early part of this horrific scheme, I could have pulled out of the spin, paid everyone off and lived a beautiful life. All I had to do was reel in my spending which my beyond absurd [sic], rell in my firm's growth, and most importantly reel in my ego. But that would have required me to admit that the persona I had created for myself and the world, the successful lawyer, entrepreneur and businessmna, were not superhuman. That I was fallible and had, in fact, failed. And my greed and ego were not going to allow that to happen.
I kept orchestrating these fictitious loans to support the firm and it's [sic] ludicrous growth, and to line my pockets and the pockets of my co-conspirators. As I stole more in the form of these 'loans for clients', I paid higher and higher interest rates and concocted more complicated lies ... frauds calculated by me to keep the cycle alive. The interest rates were not those requested by my investors, but were, of my own creation. It served to bolster my fictitious business acument.
Things spiraled out of control. But again, I never sincerely tried to stop. I kept telling that I would be ok. That everyone was making a lot of money, that our 'investors' were happy, and that ultimately my exit strategy would
come to fruition and we would pay everyone off.
But that would never happen. I was smack in the middle of a ponzi scheme that I had engineered and it would take a financial windfall of untold magnitude to pull myself out. Somehwere in the midst of all my lies, I created the 'sale of confidential settlements' fraud. And that just added to the madness.
I became involved with other co-conspirators who helped me take the schem to an entirely new level. Not against my will but rather, with my full cooperation. We went from tens of millions to hundreds of millions almost overnight.
Others in the community such as the charities and worthy causes I tried to help who are forced to return money. I wound up injuring them, not helping them.
And my precious family. I have literally destroyed their lives. My wife is devastated financially and emotionally. She has been abandoned by all but a very small handful of her friends because of me. I have cause [sic] her immeasurable pain, shame and sorry. And now I have lost her forever. My parents, my grandparents, my sister and her children, my beautiful children, my cousins and aunts and uncles. My daughter refuses to speak with me and I do not blame her. I have wreaked havoc upon my family of such an intense nature and magnitude that it is difficult for me to fathom I have undermined everything my family stands for. All that I was taught as a child and raised to believe in with every fiber of my being ... respect, integrity, honor, hard work and the sanctity of family. I discarded and trampled them all. And I am certain that I have left deep and indelible emotional scars.
For all of this I am filled with remorse and sincerely and deeply sorry. While I am incarcerated and when and if I am released I will never stop working as long as I am alive to heal the wounds I have opened on those I stole from, and on my colleagues, my friends, and my family.
I understand that this Court must, and I expect it to, sentence me to a significant term of years. I only that you deal with me fairly and that based upon the fact that the record now exists, from my decision to return from Morocco and all that I have done since, that I am truly a changed man and that I have sincerely tried to redeem myself, that you consider giving me an opportunity to live at least part of the remainder of my life as a free man with an opportunity to do some good in this world. I will never forgive myself for what I have done nor do I expect anyone else to forgive me. But I will spend the rest of my life doing everything in my power to make right all the harm I have caused and to restore my family's good name as as G-d will allow.
Thank you.
s/Scott W. Rothstein
June 2, 2010
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More coming.
