Scott Rothstein Rebuffs Comparison to Bernie Madoff, Claims He Did "the Right Thing"

By Matthew Hendley Tue., Jan. 3 2012 at 12:06 PM

Categories: Ponzi Party

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Whoa, whoa -- that isn't Scott Rothstein.

Here's something laughable -- Scott Rothstein vehemently denies being similar to fellow billion-dollar Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.

Not only that, Rothstein claimed that he did "the right thing," unlike Madoff, and said Madoff should have taken what Rothstein did "as an example."

On the ninth day of Rothstein's ten-day deposition in Miami, he faced some similar questions that he answered at various points over the two-week questioning, but when the comparison between Rothstein and Madoff was made, Rothstein got a bit defensive.

Here's the conversation from the December 22 transcript, in which Rothstein is being questioned yet again about his flight to Morocco:

Q    But it wasn't just to turn yourself in and do your time, right?
A    I made a decision to come back, turn myself in, go to prison and tell the government everything I knew about everyone else that had committed crimes.
Q    Right. So you did --
A    And everything about my crimes.
Q    So you didn't just decide to come back and, like a Bernie Madoff, take your sentence and spend the rest of your life in jail --
A    Are you --
Q    -- that wasn't your plan?
A    Whoa, whoa, are you suggesting that Bernie Madoff, who worked to help other people that were in know get away with his crime, that I'm the same? You're not even close. You're not even close. Mr. Madoff should have taken me, and I'm proud to say this, as an example as to what you do when you want to do the right thing. He did the wrong thing. Because if you think he did that by himself, then you don't know anything about how these crimes work.
Q    The point is, Mr. Madoff came back -- I mean, Mr. Madoff got his sentence and is serving it; but that's not what your plan was, right? Your plan was to get a sentence and hopefully reduce it, right?
A    At the time that I decided to come back, I had no idea what was going to happen to me. The discussions I had with my wife and other people that I was talking to who were counseling me revolved around the fact that when I stepped back on U.S. soil, I could very likely die in prison. Despite the fact that I knew that it was a very real possibility, I came back.

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