The Way We Were: In Honor of Rothstein Charges, Pictures From a Happier Time

Las Olas Lifestyle, March 2009

The Rothsteins, cozy among sports celebrities

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This past weekend, while waiting for a dryer to finish drying near Fort Lauderdale Beach, I spotted an old copy of Las Olas Lifestyle magazine. From March 2009 to be exact, some six months before Rothstein's billion-dollar house of cards came crashing to earth.

The magazine is to Fort Lauderdale what the Shiny Sheet is to Palm Beach: a glossy celebration of the glamorous parties and vast wealth enjoyed by a set of people who -- judging by the editorial content -- do nothing but attend fundraisers for charitable causes.

Basically, it's a high school yearbook. And you can tell who the popular kids are -- they're the ones beaming out from within every third page. After the jump, a vivid picture of how Rothstein and his homecoming queen Kimberly lured victims on the charity gala circuit.

From Las Olas Lifestyle

​Before we get to those, you can probably guess what law firm occupied the full-page ad just inside the magazine's cover. Yup, that one on the right -- how many indictments can you count in that picture?

Four pages after that, an ad for Bova Group -- the three existing Bova restaurants and Bova Smoke, "coming soon to Fort Lauderdale." (sic)

Two pages later, the photo above, with the Rothsteins, Mournings, and Marinos posing with that month's cover couple, Mark and Robin Levinson, who got a big dose of free advertising (and it appears some paid advertising) for their recently opened Las Olas jewelry store.

Later in the issue, we get a puff piece about Broward Days 2009, along with a vanity shot of the charity's chairman, Todd Stone -- a partner in Rothstein's firm.

Several more pages, yes, that's a review of Rothstein's beloved Bova Prime. "Our table sat us under the most incredible display of crystal lights, like stars falling from the sky," gushed the article. Yay, Rothstein!

Oh, but we haven't even got to Las Olas Lifestyle's raison d'etre: the charity gala photo spreads. Let's start with the Levinson Jewelers Benefit for the Dan Marino Foundation. You'll find two photos of the Rothsteins in this collage -- the one on the bottom left catches him with Dave Boden, who according to Pulp was intimately involved in Rothstein's business affairs.

Las Olas Lifstyle, March 2009

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