FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., June 9 (UPI) -- A federal judge in Florida gave convicted Ponzi scheme operator Scott Rothstein a 50-year prison sentence Wednesday, a longer term than prosecutors requested.
U.S. District Judge James Cohn called disbarred attorney Rothstein's $1.2 billion scam a "tsunami" that was "all a facade, a fraud."
Rothstein had asked for a 30-year sentence based on his cooperation with authorities and his guilty plea, The Miami Herald reported Wednesday.
Prosecutors had asked for a 40-year sentence, less than the maximum 100 years he could have received.
Judge Cohn said Rothstein's theft of $57 million from Ed Morse, an auto magnate, was particularly heinous. Rothstein forged documents and the signatures of judges to perpetuate a fraud that took advantage of a lawsuit between Morse and another party, the newspaper said.
"He forged these court papers to perpetuate the Ponzi scheme. There can be no conduct more reviled than a lawyer perpetrating a fraud on the court," Cohn said.
