Convicted Ponzi Guru Scott Rothstein Wasn't Worried About Whores, Hotboxing Derailing His Scam

Not sure how many people here know this, but there's an old saying that when one is running on Ponzi scheme, one needs total focus. It's a lot of work defrauding investors and while some activities by your staff are tolerable (smoking weed in every corner of the office, as well as the parking garage and the courtyard out back and having sex with prostitutes on the desk), a line must be drawn at those which create unacceptable distractions, like dealing said pot and purveying said prosties. If that doesn't make any sense or you're confused at the finely drawn distinction, perhaps convicted Ponzster Scott Rothstein, who was deposed on the matter today, can shed some light.

Q: All right. So you said the only drugs you used were marijuana with your wife. Is she the only — you didn’t — that wasn’t incorporated in the rock-star lifestyle, using drugs with any of your investors or co-conspirators?

Rothstein: No, actually, never. Actually, I had a lot of opportunities to because there was a lot of marijuana smoking going on in my office, but it wasn’t something — I prefer to drink vodka.

Q: Actually in the office it was going on?

Rothstein: In the office, in the garage, outside the office, I had some partners that couldn’t come to work without smoking pot.

Q: Okay.

Rothstein: I also found out they were actually dealing drugs in the office. I actually tried to put a stop to that.

Q: That was one crime you wouldn’t tolerate?

Rothstein: No, no, it’s not that. I didn’t want to draw attention. You don’t want to have marijuana dealing from the middle of your law office because I was running a giant Ponzi scheme out of there.

Q: Did you ever have any of the escorts visit the office?

Rothstein: Yeah. Sure.

Q: You had had prostitutes in the office, but you wouldn’t have pot?

Rothstein: You’re missing the point. The police also were sleeping with my escorts….Pot, not a great idea in the office, I don’t know why, specifically, it bothered me; but it troubled me, probably because they were actually dealing the pot out of the office while I was in the middle of running a several-hundred-million-dollar Ponzi scheme.

Get it now? No further questions.

Rothstein: As Ponzi Scheme Unfolded, My Co-Workers Got Blazed [WSJ/Law Blog]