Howard Kusnick, a former lawyer at Scott Rothstein's now-defunct law firm, pleaded guilty yesterday to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
Kusnick, a 58-year-old Tamarac resident, is accused of defrauding two clients of the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm by pretending to file litigation
in their favor and instead funneling the funds from those clients into
Rothstein's pockets.
At one point when Rothstein's $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme was blowing up, he sent out this email in all-caps (the email equivalent to shouting) to all of the RRA employees:
From: Scott Rothstein
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 8:45 AM
To: Allstaff
Subject: IMPORTANT--HOWARD KUSNICKEFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY
IF ANYONE CALLS FOR HOWARD KUSNICK, OR ASKS ABOUT HIM....AND I MEAN ANYONE.....HE IS NOT AN EMPLOYEE OF OUR FIRM. YOU ARE SIMPLY TO TELL THE CALLER OR THE PERSON INQUIRING THAT HE IS NOT EMPLOYED BY RRA AND CAN BE REACHED AT 954-648-4290.
HOWARD IS AWARE OF THIS AND UNDERSTANDS. WHILE HE MAY BE IN OUR OFFICE FROM TIME TO TIME IN THE FUTURE, HE IS NOT AN EMPLOYEE OF RRA.
THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MOST IMPORTANT MATTER.
ANY QUESTIONS, PLEASE SEE ME DIRECTLY. PLEASE DO NOT BOTHER
HOWARD OR HIS SECRETARY WITH THIS.
SCOTT
Not five minutes later, Rothstein sent out another email with the caps lock button on cruise control:
Sources told the Pulp in 2009 that they didn't know they were supposed to deny that Kusnick worked at the firm, because he kept coming in all the time.IF ANYONE INQUIRES AS TO WHETHER HE HAS EVER WORKED FOR US OR WHEN HE WORKED FOR US OR TIME PERIODS ETC, YOU ARE INSTRUCTED TO PLEASE SIMPLY SAY THAT HE IS NOT EMPLOYED BY OUR FIRM AND GIVE THEM HIS NUMBER.... 954-648-4290
THANKS AGAIN,
THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT.
SCOTT
That Ponzi party Rothstein was throwing for South Florida wasn't the only time he and Kusnick got in a little trouble either.
Also in 2009, car dealer Ed Morse accused Rothstein and Kusnick of swindling him out of him tens of millions of dollars in a lawsuit involving the renovation of his home.
Kusnick did this by -- you guessed it -- again allegedly cooking up a phony settlement letter.
As part of his guilty plea in Rothstein's Ponzi scheme, prosecutors have reportedly agreed to a prison sentence of 24 to 30 months, according to Bloomberg.
Kusnick is currently free on bond, and his sentencing is scheduled for September 2.
The other three indicted alongside Kusnick -- Curtis Renie, William Corte, and Stephen Caputi -- all have change-of-plea dates scheduled for various points this month.
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