Scott Rothstein’s Uncle, 67, Sentenced to Four ...

Scott Rothstein’s Uncle, 67, Sentenced to Four Years in Prison

Jon Burstein - Sun Sentinel

Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein’s uncle will soon join his nephew in federal prison after being sentenced Wednesday to four years behind bars for his role in a series of charades used to entice investors into handing over $166 million.

William Boockvor, known around Rothstein’s Fort Lauderdale law office as “Uncle Bill,” admitted he played a part in helping dupe investors into believing Rothstein had tens of millions of dollars that he didn’t have. Based on phony bank paperwork, investors felt confident enough to entrust Rothstein with their money.

Boockvor, 67, cut a deal with federal prosecutors in February, agreeing to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and face no more than five years in prison. He is the ninth person charged and sentenced for criminal activity within Rothstein’s now-defunct law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler.

Boockvor accepted his four-year prison term with calm resignation as a group of female family members silently watched from the courtroom audience, sitting side by side. Among them was his only sibling, Gay Rothstein, Scott Rothstein’s mother.

He spoke briefly to U.S. District Judge Daniel T.K. Hurley, offering no excuses for his actions.

“I apologize for having to be here at all and I’m very sorry for what happened,” he said. “That’s it in a nutshell.”

Hurley allowed Boockvor a few extra weeks of freedom, ordering he voluntarily surrender to federal authorities on Nov. 23. In addition to the prison time, he was ordered to pay $166 million in restitution, a largely symbolic penalty.

Rothstein, 50, is serving a 50-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in January 2010 to five felony charges for orchestrating the $1.4 billion investment fraud, the largest in South Florida history. He has cooperated extensively with federal prosecutors and attorneys attempting to recover investors’ funds, hoping he can get his prison sentence reduced. Part of that cooperation meant implicating his uncle, who Rothstein once described as a “a good soldier” for him.

Boockvor also has been aiding federal authorities and civil attorneys in Rothstein-related litigation. Hurley cited that cooperation as the reason he sentenced the former car salesman to four years in prison, rather than five.

When Rothstein fled to Morocco in the waning days of the Ponzi scheme, he took his uncle with him. Boockvor has testified he thought he was going to help Rothstein look into investing in a Moroccan nightclub and had no idea about the scope of his nephew’s fraud, according to court records.

But Boockvor admitted that he helped his nephew put on what’s become known in Rothstein litigation as “investor shows.” The “shows” were needed as big-money investors weighed whether to plow tens of millions of dollars into Rothstein’s investment scheme.

To assure investors that he had plenty of cash in his bank accounts, Rothstein would have Boockvor go to the Weston branch of TD Bank with phony paperwork showing bank balances of millions of dollars. The investors would then go to the bank where bank officials would hand over sealed envelopes containing the phony paperwork and a letter on bank stationery vouching for the hefty bank accounts, according to Boockvor.

In other instances, Rothstein reserved a conference room at the bank and had an acquaintance, Steve Caputi, pose as a bank employee for investors, court records show. Boockvor would give Caputi the phony paperwork before those “shows.” Caputi is serving five years in prison for his role in the scam.

Two attorneys who are representing Rothstein investors in lawsuits against TD Bank said Boockvor has assisted them and his testimony has been helpful in outlining how bank officials aided Rothstein.

“[He] showed this fraud was widespread in TD Bank,” said Reid Cocalis, a lawyer with the Fort Lauderdale law firm of Conrad & Scherer. TD Bank reached a $170 million settlement with the Scherer firm rather than risk going to trial.

Another attorney handling Rothstein-related civil litigation submitted a letter to the judge on Boockvor’s behalf, writing that Rothstein largely kept his uncle in the dark.

“I believe the record is fairly clear that Mr. Boockvor, like so many others, was used by his trusted nephew to further Mr. Rothstein’s own selfish ends,” wrote former U.S. Attorney Thomas Scott, who is representing former Rothstein friend Ted Morse.

Boockvor’s attorney, John F. “Jack” O’Donnell, had argued his client should receive no more than a three-year prison term, citing his cooperation and his extensive cardiovascular problems, but Hurley was unswayed.

Rothstein’s mother wrote the judge that she feared her brother could die in prison if he was to spend years behind bars. She described him as “the last man in the family to whom I can turn in times of emotional need.”

“Because Scott was his nephew and my son, Bill seldom questioned anything Scott asked him to do,” she wrote. “That family loyalty is what landed him in the position in which he finds himself today.”

jburstein@tribune.com, 954-356-4491 or Twitter @jkburstein.

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