Imagine if this guy put his powers to good use…

Scott Rothstein, of the now defunct Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler firm in Miami, Florida, accused of orchestrating a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme, ”appeared nonchalant as he stood in handcuffs and leg restraints before U.S. Magistrate Robin Rosenbaum, who ordered him held without bail because he is a flight risk.”

Some of the gruesome details of Mr. Rothstein’s alleged scheme are coming to light (Daily Business Review via Law.com, link above):

In a criminal information filed with the court, prosecutors charged him with five counts, including racketeering conspiracy that includes mail fraud, wire fraud and money laundering. Between 2005 and 2009, the government said, Rothstein took millions in investor money in a scheme that focused on the sale of confidential settlements of legal disputes. By statute, a conviction on all charges could result in 100 years in prison.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Schwartz told Rosenbaum that during the alleged multi-year scheme, Rothstein concocted phony orders and forged the signatures of judges’ names including those of federal judges and a District Court of Appeal judge.

The forging of those documents, Schwartz declared, “goes to the heart of our justice system.”

Prosecutors said Rothstein forged signatures on judicial orders to scam friend and auto magnate Ed Morse out of $57 million, which went to pay investors in the Ponzi scheme.  

Oh, yeah, and to purchase mansions and Ferraris and yachts…fortunately for Mr. Rothstein, Bernie Madoff did it in New York and did it bigger, so his puny little fraud is background noise right now.  And, fortunately for the legal profession, a few years from now most folks won’t even know Mr. Rothstein’s name no less the heinous crimes he apparently committed … but you can bet most of them will still remember that McDonald’s hot coffee case from a million years ago.

It never gets old listening to people complain about how the justice system is broken, does it?  Good times…