Rich Guys Club

Former NFL star Warren Sapp, some of America’s biggest banks and tax collectors from Florida to Rhode Island are laying claim to a piece of the collapsed empire of disbarred attorney Scott Rothstein, who is awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to operating a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme.

U.S. District Judge James I. Cohn began sorting through the claims Friday, including one from the bankruptcy trustee for Rothstein’s defunct law firm who says more than $469 million is being sought by investors and creditors. Cohn said he hoped to settle the claims — a list of 46 expected to quickly grow larger — by the end of August.

“I intend to put these claims on the front burner,” Cohn said.

The question involves which of Rothstein’s former assets — including dozens of pieces of real estate and homes, business interests, luxury vehicles, yachts, jewelry and bank accounts — should be forfeited to the U.S. government and which should go to individuals, banks or companies who claim they are the true owners.

For example, Wachovia bank contends that it owns a $2.75 million commercial property in Pompano Beach. Rothstein’s former law partner, Russell Adler, says a downtown New York condominium is “100 percent” his and has no link to the Ponzi scheme. Tax collectors in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties in Florida and the town of Narragansett, R.I., are demanding taxes owed on several Rothstein-related properties.

Read More: – By Curt Anderson, the Associated Press

By Anna Driver, Reuters

The court-appointed attorney overseeing Allen Stanford’s assets is pursuing proceeds from the sale of a $3 million Florida home once owned by one of the accused swindler’s mistresses, court documents show.

According to court documents filed on Thursday, Rebecca Reeves-Stanford, 54, sold her home in Key Biscayne, Florida, in May and transferred the proceeds to accounts in the Cook Islands and New Zealand to avoid turning the money over to the case’s receiver.

Reeves-Stanford, mother of two of Stanford’s six children, “is one of several ‘outside wives’ with whom Stanford had an ongoing relationship,” lawyers for receiver Ralph Janvey wrote in a court filings. “Stanford apparently provided Reeves with large sums of money and substantial gifts for nearly two decades.”

Stanford, who is awaiting trial, has an estranged wife, a girlfriend, and three other children with two other women.

Janvey has asked U.S. District Judge David Godbey in Dallas to sanction Reeves-Stanford and two of her lawyers.

Janvey has also asked the court to evict Stanford’s 27-year-old daughter Randi from her luxury high-rise condominium in Houston valued at more than $1 million.

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By Associated Press

More than $1 billion in assets from Bernard Madoff’s businesses have been found, a lawyer for the trustee trying to recover money for jilted investors said Monday.

The lawyer, David Sheehan, said $75 million in an account in Gibraltar raises the amount of assets located past the $1 billion mark.

Sheehan spoke after a hearing in which government lawyers tried to block court-appointed trustee Irving Picard from gaining power of attorney over Madoff’s international operation.

Sheehan argued that power of attorney over Madoff’s accounts was an important tool, especially since actions may need to be taken quickly in foreign countries where things can happen to assets without warning.

For instance, Sheehan said, the trustee has been told that French authorities were planning to seize Madoff’s chateau in Cap d’ Antibe, France. The property was estimated by Madoff to be worth $1 million at the end of 2008, with $900,000 of furnishings and fine art inside it.

Sheehan said he understood that French authorities wanted to seize the property to benefit investors in France who lost money to Madoff.

“Those things happen almost daily,” he told U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton, saying the trustee needs a strong hand in dealing overseas.

But Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Ann Ward said U.S. authorities already have relationships in foreign countries and can act quickly to protect investor assets.

She said any assets in Madoff’s international business account should be held in escrow, although prosecutors could agree to allow some movement if action is necessary to protect them.

The judge repeatedly asked Ward if she thought the trustee could not be trusted or was doing something wrong.

“It has nothing to do with mistrusting the trustee or anyone else,” she said. “The trustee has not explained why the trustee needs this power.”

Ward said U.S. prosecutors were working with law enforcement authorities in other countries, including the Serious Organised Crime Agency in London.

She said there were “criminal implications” involved in Madoff’s international securities business. The judge did not immediately decide the issue.

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