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Fort Lauderdale, Fla. • An investment adviser faces possible prison time for his role in the $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme operated by disbarred attorney Scott Rothstein.
Michael Szafranski is expected to get three years or less at a sentencing hearing Monday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale because of his cooperation against others in the scam. Szafranski pleaded guilty to wire fraud conspiracy earlier this year.
Prosecutors say Szafranski lured investors to Rothstein through various deceptions, including assurances he reviewed confidential legal settlements that did not actually exist. Rothstein's scam was based on investments in these fake settlements.
More than two dozen other people have been convicted in the Rothstein scam, operated out of his former Fort Lauderdale law office until its October 2009 collapse. Rothstein himself is serving a 50-year prison sentence.