PonziSchemer

Earlier I wrote about the Scott Rothstein Ponzi scheme in Florida but now another news story indicates that the fallout extends beyond just Rothstein's own properties. Casa Casuarina, Gianni Versace's South Beach mansion, is also caught in the crossfire. Rothstein, who is part owner of the property, has been accused of swindling investors in a Ponzi scheme which took in hundreds of millions of dollars.

Just a few weeks ago executive chef Wolfgang Birk moved from Washington D.C. to South Beach to take over the new Italian restaurant at Casa Casuarina but on Monday he was escorted out of the building by police along with the mansion's other employees. The restaurant was supposed to open this week. The employees are out of work and their payrolls will be hung up in court while Rothstein's complicated legal tangles are sorted out. Rothstein's Bova Group had taken over management of the entire property, including the hotel, restaurant, nightclub, and the private membership club. After Rothstein's illegal dealings were discovered Peter Loftin, Casa Casuarina's majority owner, asked that anything associated with Bova Group be taken out of the property in order to protect his property from anyone coming after Rothstein. An article on the Daily Pulp says that Loftin is looking into bringing in a new management company in order to reopen the property.

Rothstein had $1 million wedding at the property last year with Florida governor Charlie Crist in attendance. He has bought a small stake in the mansion and has left behind hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills relating to renovations for the restaurant and other areas.

Tony Bova, Rothstein's partner in the restaurant business also managed Bova Prime in Fort Lauderdale and was not part of the Ponzi schemer's machinations. The future of that restaurant is also uncertain and it could end up closing.

Is Florida the home of the Ponzi scheme. NBC Miami brings in the story of yet another Florida Ponzi schemer who has had his toys seized by federal agents. Fort Lauderdale lawyer Scott Rothstein has not been arrested yet but the IRS has filed documents saying that he has been running a scheme since 2005, swindling hundreds of millions of dollars from investors. The filing says that Rothstein and others created false bank records and created legal settlements that did not exist. According to the Sun-Sentinel, the documents show that Rothstein's clients believed they were buying blocks of structured settlements derived from sexual harassment and labor-related cases in which confidential agreements had been reached. As with other Ponzi schemes new investor money was used to pay previous investors.

Federal agents visited Rothstein's $6.5 million mansion and hauled away his sports car collection and yacht and placed liens on several of his properties. The video from NBC Miami shows flatbed trucks taking away hisRolls-Royce Phantom and Bentley convertible. A red Ferrari was taken from his office and his 80-foot yacht Kimberly, named for his wife was sailed off to a collection agency. So far at least one lawsuit has been filed by investors seeking to get back some of the money they have lost.

NBC Miami tells the story of another alleged Ponzi schemer. Sean Healy is no Bernie Madoff but he may have walked off with $20 million from his clients most of which seems to have been spent on living an exceedingly lavish lifestyle. Healy and his wife, a former Hooters girl, lived in an extravagant $2.4 million mansion in Weston, Florida. A Ferrari, stretch limousine and several Lamborghinis (a pink-trimmed one for the wife) were parked in the garage and the pair also spent millions on jewelry and tricking out the home (once owned by former NFL quarterback Bernie Kosar, a man with his own financial woes) with a $500,000 home theater. According to a video shot by NBC Miami (embedded after the jump), Healy invested none of his clients money and spent it all on his belongings, inventing big returns out of pure thin air. He is currently under house arrest in New York.