Where is kimberly rothstein

From the time she met Rothstein in to the middle of , Rothstein had transformed from a workaday lawyer to an apparent millionaire. But the Ponzi scheme was either in its infancy or about to begin; the big money hadn't started flowing in.

We weren't on the social circuit thing," she says. We were just normal people. This was before all the political stuff started happening. We could go out and be ourselves, and we had fun. While she doesn't deny that Rothstein's wealth gave her a sense of security, she says it wasn't the money that made her fall in love with him.

A few weeks after that first date, he invited Kim to his 43rd birthday party at the grill and bar at Pier 66 in Fort Lauderdale. He got down on one knee and proposed in front of the "usual suspects" with a diamond engagement ring. I was happy. To think you've touched someone like that in such a short amount of time. He was happy; he was crying. He called his parents, and he said, 'Mom, Dad, I'm engaged. He's very close to his family.

She quickly moved in with Rothstein in the Castilla Isle home, and one of the first major gifts he gave her was a Cadillac Escalade, which replaced the BMW she had been leasing her mother drove the car for the most part until the lease ran out. This is right about the time that authorities believe Rothstein's Ponzi scheme was beginning.

The feds have allowed her to keep the Escalade, she says, because it was considered a pre-Ponzi possession, though Rothstein had recently replaced the old one with a new one. Her engagement and wedding rings which she doesn't wear now also fell into that category.

Again, she refuses to discuss most details about her financial state until after her husband's sentencing, but she indicates that almost everything else of real value has been taken by the federal government. I'll write in more depth about her current living arrangement she says she lives at the "mercy of the universe" right now in a later piece. Once she moved into his home, she was in Scott Rothstein's orbit, a place where she says he is "master of the universe.

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She says that Rothstein immediately began pursuing her and that she didn't try to stop him. I support. Support the independent voice of South Florida and help keep the future of New Times free. Support Us. Keep New Times Free. Since we started New Times Broward-Palm Beach , it has been defined as the free, independent voice of South Florida, and we'd like to keep it that way.

The store also offered Kim the comfort and opportunity to maintain a routine for the first time in her life. It allowed her to begin healing her relationship with her mother. Unfortunately and without her knowledge, Kim's mother sold the store. Kim was devastated and this led to her estrangement from her mother for over a year. Struggling to survive, Kim studied for and received her Real Estate License.

It did not produce sufficient income and she returned to waitressing and bartending. During this time, she had another serious, painful relationship, which ultimately failed.

This is an upscale bar that attracts well-heeled professionals. It was while working at the Blue Martini that Kim was courted by a young, handsome, and seemingly charming lawyer named Scott Rothstein.

Three weeks after their first date, Scott Rothstein proposed to Kim. Less than one month later, Scott asked Kim to move in with him. Kim thought she had found her prince charming, someone who would care for her and with whom she could live a fairy tale life.

However, it was only a continuation of failed relationships with controlling abusive boyfriends, each time reliving her paternal relationship of abuse.

However, in Scott Rothstein, she found the perfect match for her desire to create a fantastic, false world and appearance. Early on, Kim learned to rely upon her looks as a means to cover up what is really a tremendous feeling of being unloved, unworthy and shame.

Scott was seeking his "eye candy", someone he could wear on his arm like he wore his Rolexes. She was beautiful, intelligent and most important, someone who would continue to seek his love, thereby allowing him to control her and everything in her life. It was the perfect match of dysfunctional behavior.

The guest list was a who's who of the wealthiest and purportedly most powerful professionals and politicians in the State of Florida. A far cry from the swimming holes of Davie, Florida. The abundance and attention gave her a feeling of self-worth and importance. Today, she understands that these feelings were not real or permanent.

They merely allowed her to deny and avoid her true feelings of shame and not being worthy of true love or real connection. Over the next few years she enjoyed what was supposed to be a fairy tale life. She had access to numerous homes, cars and travel. She enjoyed meeting celebrities and politicians. That was unfortunately the face of the marriage and did not reflect the reality of their relationship. In reality she had merely fallen back into another destructive relationship.

Their relationship continued to deteriorate. At the end of October, , Scott Rothstein traveled to Morocco. Kim had no clue that he was actually fleeing what was the discovery of the largest Ponzi scheme in the history of South Florida.

He returned and confessed to her his fraudulent conduct. In one moment, the life she clung to, the fantasy she lived dissolved.

Within weeks, all of the accounts and Kim's credit cards were frozen. All assets were seized by the United States Marshall. She was sued for millions of dollars and a 15 million dollar tax lien was filed against her within a month after,. Not surprisingly, all of their "friends" disappeared.

This triggered her fear of abandonment and she felt lost. She had no emotional or financial support and while she was able to live in one of the family rental houses for a short period of time, she was ultimately forced to leave the family home. Immediately upon Scott's return to the United States, Kim was able to visit with Scott at a secret location. There he suggested removing some of the jewelry as insurance.

Unfortunately her survival skills kicked in and instead of taking a moment to contemplate this behavior, she reacted and saw it as her means of survival. Scott promised numerous times that she would be "taken care of", but in the end, she was left with virtually nothing from the Bankruptcy and Forfeiture litigation. Weisman gave the proceeds to Kimberly Rothstein and Saidel.

But the plot thickened when Marin and Daoud gave depositions in the Rothstein law firm's bankruptcy case. Marin "falsely testified" that a dead person named Robert Fuchs had shown him the ring, according to records.

Daoud also "falsely testified" that someone other than Weisman had shown him the ring and that he never possessed it. In fact, Daoud gave the ring back to Weisman after his testimony, the charges state. To get their story straight, prosecutors said, Kimberly Rothstein , Weisman and Saidel concocted a plan to persuade Scott Rothstein to testify in the bankruptcy case that he had sold the ring to Robert Fuchs before he was incarcerated.

Weisman and Saidel told Kimberly Rothstein to meet with her husband, who has been held in an undisclosed federal prison, to advise him to deliver "false facts" in the bankruptcy case.

Rothstein, looking to curry favor with prosecutors to reduce his year sentence, told them about the cover-up plot, according to sources familiar with the case. But it remains to be seen whether Rothstein will ever receive a sentence reduction, after pleading guilty in early to racketeering and other fraud charges involving the sale of purported legal settlements to investors from Florida to New York.

About 15 other defendants, including employees of his former law firm, have been convicted on charges stemming from his investment scheme, among the largest financial frauds in Florida history. Remember Me. On November 9, , agents of the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations, went to the Rothstein residence, where Kimberly Rothstein assisted the agents in retrieving what was believed to be all of the available cash, jewelry and luxury watches which had previously been purchased by Scott W.

Rothstein with proceeds derived from the Ponzi scheme. However, according to Court documents, before, during and after the aforesaid seizure by federal agents on November 9, , Kimberly Rothstein, Stacie Weisman, and Scott F.

Saidel knowingly took action to conceal certain items of jewelry, valued in excess of one million dollars, for the purpose of preventing the government from exercising its authority to take such property into its lawful custody and control. Thereafter, Kimberly Rothstein and Stacie Weisman sold and attempted to sell a portion of this jewelry to and through various persons, including Eddy Marin and Patrick Daoud.

The documents further allege that, in connection with civil proceedings instituted by the Trustee in bankruptcy for RRA, the defendants took steps to obstruct justice by concealing the true location of certain items of jewelry in order to prevent its availability for use in the bankruptcy proceedings.