Melissa Lewis and the Deadly Ponzi Scheme

[Music] hey you and welcome my name is Mike and in this whole video we are uh you know what we're doing we're following the money it's a thing people say it works in this one though to be fair because not only do we have you know what we usually have in these old videos we also got like well I'm like Wolf of Wall Street type dealios it's Matt it's set in Florida so that's not a surprising at all and it all began when an attorney at a law firm vanished this would lead to uh Hester cards essentially tumbling down and a just generally turning into a big old poop show my favorite let's give it a go [Music] so Fort Lauderdale today look at us in the big time even I can't tell when I'm being sarcastic anymore okay so Fort laudie South East Florida I don't think I need to Yap away about it too much it's it's fairly well known big city in Florida part of the Miami Metro Area done and done in downtown Fort Lauderdale was a law firm pretty big had offices all across America and a few Beyond and it went by the name Rothstein rosenfelt and Adler now to say they were strong maybe is the word that would be an understatement if that was the word I'm not using that word they were like politically well connected they were big dogs and the guy at the tippity top was a guy named Scott Rothstein I'm with Scott Ross team I'm lost in a Rosenfeld firm how are you I'm doing great what could be bad here I love is unbelievable it's a great party and you know what just the fact that you have so much love for your career and what you do for your employees it's a love of to watch you how happy you got you really are and what a nice party you're putting on how do you feel kind I feel unbelievable it's an unbelievable group there's nothing here that would have happened without all these people here they're absolutely incredible I'm blessed to have the greatest group of lawyers the greatest support staff it's what it's all about it's this is really all for them this has nothing to do with me I would never be here if it wasn't for them [Music] Scott was the guy everyone knew gregarious fun flashy a good bit of crack to be around and he was the managing shareholder chairman and CEO of Rothstein rosenfelton Adler he would rub elbows with the Rich and Famous he himself was from New York growing up though in Fort Lauderdale when his family moved there as a teen he got his law degrees beginning in that beeswax in 1988. he worked his way up partnered with various law firms in the Miami Metro area until 2004. when the name Rothstein rosenfelton Adler was the one on the business cards and it was a juggernaut they also great parties [Music] this is not showing up on your W-2 that's right [Music] over 70 attorneys worked at the practice one of which was 38 year old Melissa Lewis and she had been there since since the the law firm began Melissa was one of the good ones she loved law she was a workaholic and she always did a good job for her clients and she Missy to those closest knew how to blow off steam at the work parties and it was far from you know Penthouse law offices that Melissa was raised let me tell you she was a high school dropout struggled with school but not for lack of noodle she just wanted to be out of there in the world in her late 20s the law would come a call and in University Nova Southeastern University law school Scott would actually end up being a professor of hers and with her ending up as an intern at his firm there Melissa would become fast friends with Deborah Villegas who she met on her first day as I said they were there from the very very start and they saw a thing grow I keep growing and it would eventually you'll become a big old flashy Behemoth as the fun books rolled in Melissa's main focus was in labor and employment law and she was a good in her spare time she volunteered helping victims of domestic violence or cooking she was hot a cooking Melissa would be married for five years ending in a nightmare divorce she was supported through that by her friend Deborah as Deborah would be supported through her own Divorce by Melissa Melissa would eventually become in 2008 a partner at the firm the first female partner and she was hoping to go on and become a judge eventually Deborah bezy mate would become the company's Chief Operating Officer this year the Jason ran Shining Star Award goes to the absolute love of my life the person for which I really know everything that I have achieved and with that although in the Congress was a very small token of our appreciation a chat for a thousand dollars [Music] now the end of Melissa Lewis would be the beginning of the end for the entire Law Firm it was on the 5th of March 2008 Melissa 39 years old and had just become a partner at the firm that evening Deborah tried to call her buddy couple of times no answer the very next morning that the Thursday morning never went in no show Melissa hadn't called and calls going in the opposite direction went on atsu Melissa lived in a place called Plantation about a 20-minute drive from the offices on Las Olas Boulevard with no sign of her Deborah went to the big guy Scott and Scott well connected he immediately was on to his buddies down at the station and so they can get a move on finding her or seeing what the crack was maybe she was fine maybe she wasn't and if I'm telling her it's not looking good for her her house seemed fine no sign of a disturbance stuff wasn't you thrown all about the place her car was gone though and in this garage they did find something weird it's like a orange on the door that's P go see a doctor it was actually a spray mist and you know the way his famous it would Clump Clump together at this point though what it exactly it was was anyone's guess but it was the only the only clue Left Behind well to be fair it was obvious to those who were there what that orange was because they immediately started coughing and their eyes burning it was pepper spray so uh that's the first red flag something bad happened bad enough that Melissa had to defend herself Deborah knew Melissa carried pepper spray most likely she never made it inside the home that's why nothing was out of place as soon as she pulled in to the garage something happened and then she was gone in her own car and Adler were known about town this wouldn't be a rinky dink investigation this would be big news and the firm would be pushing the police hard to solve whatever happened Scott was actually the the attorney for the police Union so he'd be he was the one who went to bat for them so now it's their turn so what did they learn well they had the pepper spray and Melissa had two dogs one of them had actually been pepper spray too poor fella a button was found so as you know with the spray there was some kind of fight her last movements before she got home were traced she left work around seven then went to a you know a nearby supermarket and from there the distances you know they could judge what time she arrived back in that garage at roughly half eight ish something happened then as soon as she probably as soon as she opened her car door foreign though for Melissa and her fancy you know lawyer car it's a GPS so they could they could find out where her car had gone it was discovered a mile away in a car park they found her jacket missing a button her shoes and it all at all smell of pepper spray not a whole lot else though no fingerprints that were into Melissa's either in the house or the car they would have to wait for uh you know to test these items for DNA and that would take I mean that takes time it takes a long time time which kidnapped Melissa didn't have and then it would turn out that she was already out of time two days later her body was discovered in a canal about eight miles south of where her car was found the autopsy revealed Melissa Lewis had been strangled to death before being dumped probably murdered in the garage so then um theories sprang up you know one being a it was a robbery gone wrong right Melissa she had a Prada bag she had a five Brands you know what diamonds yeah this she was that she had that so somebody tried to bust in tried to not her stuff and it went it went wrong she was able to defend herself and blah blah blah blah blah the nerd said no you know she lived in a nice neighborhood there wouldn't be break-ins and if there was this was a burglary gone wrong or whatever why would they wait they they would have gone in when she wasn't home not when she was home seeing then like someone was waiting for her that this was personal that this was planned so when she knew maybe one of her clients maybe well the area of law she worked in didn't really seem to fit plus I mean she was she was well liked she wasn't abrasive at all you know she had an ex-husband he was he had a strong Alibi wasn't him did Deborah know anyone as her best friend you know they hung it together all the time and never said no she never hung out with like strange men no no like that you know they would you just have quite nice and cook food together that kind of thing one other thing they had to trace was Melissa's iPhone and it turned out her phone had been used after the murder they were able to track the phone from the house to the canal then further south then to the north Fort Lauderdale area and then back again south to a place called Miami Gardens at times the phone wouldn't leave for for a number of hours leading the police to think that they knew where this person lived but they could only triangulate not pinpoint so they began to ask people close to the investigation if they knew anyone in those areas Deborah knew but the person she knew of didn't know Melissa like at all Tony Villegas Deborah's ex-husband they had been married for 17 years one year divorced at this stage he worked in trains and had no criminal record at all but one record the police had where the phone records and Melissa's phone traveled the same route he worked on trains after the kidnapping but I went to give him a goo how well did you uh do you know this uh your Deborah's Deborah's friends uh I know her from her I've seen her uh a few times you guys ever have any problems maybe something like that or whatever I don't think I ever smoked or I wanted to work do you know if she's had anything to do with what you're going through right now with Deborah the divorce I don't know and uh and I really don't don't care I mean that wouldn't bother you if she did no no the thing is that I just want to get away from my wife I just want to be peace do you have anything to do with the with Melissa's death no her phone after it was stolen drove to the area of your house and stayed there overnight he came to work with you the next day and traveled North with the train because the train is GPS on it doesn't it was on the train okay let someone else here knows Melissa lives in your house comes to work with you you had the phone okay listen just I'll be honest with you this doesn't look very good for you but I don't even know they searched his house his car his work area nothing the last time that Tony and Melissa to your knowledge would have had actual contact together face-to-face type contact [Music] I think their last face to face because they I mean I could probably count on one hand the number of times that they had a face to face it's only ever at Melissa's house on two occasions one occasion we went there to pick up a Bowflex a weight bench yes were you and Tony still together at this time so this would have been like a year or plus before oh yeah and to your knowledge was he ever to the house after that to her house after that I'm I'm pretty sure that was the last time they didn't really have any kind of motive either either like he barely knew Melissa nobody even really remembers him ever talking to her the only thing they could think of was that he was a very jealous jealous person and that maybe he blamed Melissa for for uh the divorce Deborah would say during you know the marriage he was possessive he was violent Melissa helped her leave so maybe Melissa's funeral was huge there was a massive turn it all paid for by Scott Rothstein a few days later Tony was arrested uncharged with first-degree murder he pled not guilty as the investigation continued however would blow up [Music] new Financial Scandal is brewing in Broward County this time involving a prominent and well-connected attorney Scott Rothstein is the center of a federal investigation and the other partners in the law firm are now scrambling to figure out if they got tricked in the latest high-profile Ponzi scheme see Scott oh Scotty eat a flashy life flashy even for a top top lawyer private jets Yachts exotic cars and I mean like exotic Ferraris rolls royces Lamborghinis Bugattis worth 1.6 million dollars how about two one his watch collection was worth over a million dollars just that I could keep going on and on about all the shitty owns but after a certain it doesn't even matter after a certain point another lawyer would say about uh Scott quote how Rothstein was able to generate this kind of income practicing law seemed impossible after Melissa's death Scott had a security detail he was worried you know he could be next Maybe when Melissa's case was solved and it was deemed to be a personal murder he kept the security then Scott dude and he sent out a little assignment to everybody who worked at the law firm you know clickity cooking It's like got one for you you know Pop Quiz Hot Shot he had to know right and this was for a very powerful client so get it right he needed to know he needs to know today what countries around the globe didn't have extradition treaties with either the United States or Israel I'll tell you now the list is very short the reason why Scott said was the client was an Israeli citizen that had renounced their U.S citizenship and indictments were coming talking fraud money laundering and embezzlement so a few people replied and it turns out it's Morocco Morocco ladies and gentlemen you might want to keep that information in your back pocket uh yeah two weeks later Scott was on a plane to Morocco in a private jet with millions of dollars in duffel bags outside of Broward courtroom attorney Circle as one of the most politically powerful law firms in South Florida is about to implode right now all we know is that the money's gone Scott's gone uh and and we're trying to find out what happened it's too early to tell precisely what kind of scheme it was the Scout he's talking about is Scott Rothstein the high-flying spiky-haired attorney who led the law firm Rothstein rosenfelt Adler now that law firm he started with Stuart Rosenfeld in 2002 is coming apart I'm just very sad to see a beautiful thing that we built and Fall Apart now guys I'm gonna I'm gonna shock you here but I know nothing about like Financial shite so I'm going to explain this part as simply as I can I'm sure you all know what a Ponzi scheme is but for those on the back it's when you have a scheme where you get people to invest with you and you'll give them great returns but you know you just take the money and then you eventually need to pay back them and their you know their investment so you need to Swindle more people into your little scheme probably the most famous example is Bernie Madoff who made off with everyone's money Ponzi schemers will usually advertise it on credible Returns on their Investments Way Beyond you anything you would actually get in reality so then you invest with them after a while they'll have to pay you back therefore they have to get new investors they'll do this for a couple years because they want to build up you know reputation and money and then they'll you know the idea would be they would just do a lagger it doesn't usually work that way in today's day and age and it's you know it's a tough scheme because you constantly have to be getting new money in you know you're robbing Peter to pay Paul this usually ends with you know people losing the millions they invested a lot of time this ends up being people's uh pensions which is quite disgusting Scott rothstein's Ponzi was worth about one billion dollars nice chunk of change and how he did it was like this he would settle discrimination cases before trial these would often be sensitive cases and whistleblower cases you know people wanted to they didn't want to go to trial they wanted to keep it Hush Hush Now settlements you know they can be kind of difficult to actually get the money out of so many people would instead of waiting for these settlements they would just take a lump of cash instead of even you know the full money they were due out so what Scott would do would be he would find investors to invest I.E give him money to pay off the awarded person and then he would tell the investor when the settlement comes back in you'll make your money back and then some the investor was usually guaranteed at least a 20 return within three months this was something along the lines of and I'm people out there will probably correct me but I believed pre-settlement funding no though um many times the settlements didn't exist hence the Ponzi scheme Scotty created fake legal documents fake bank accounts fake Bank details he got investors to invest and the money went into his back pocket his victims were mostly hedge funds after Melissa's disappearance Scott you know he thought it might be related to the Ponzi the thing is about Melissa nobody really knows how much Melissa knew about the whole scheme eventually all of the partners would be arrested so in the Ponzi scheme hit the fan it became party investigation is Melissa aware of anything that Scott was involved with and I'm going to use the term the Ponzi scheme no or any discussion between you and Scott about having Melissa killed absolutely not are you aware of any discussion or conspiracy to hire Tony from Melissa Lewis's murder no before I would have let him kill Melissa that's the biggest regret that I have in all of this Melissa may not have known Deborah did know though she helped Forge documents so in Autumn 2009 when investors you know started to smell something hinky and started going to the FBI Scott fled the country he fled the country wearing this shirt man all the money in the world cannot buy taste in Morocco he sent suicide text messages to his Partners but he was eventually talked out of it and talked into returning to America I want to wait for the purpose of making sure that I had my head on straight that when I came back I had already been through all the emotional things had been through the hysterics had been through all the other things that you go through when you realize that you have done something that you shouldn't have done I will not stop until every single penny is paid back where he turned himself in and it turned out Scott was on FBI informant they knew about this Ponzi scheme for quite some time 26 people involved in the scheme were convicted including the other partners rosenfelt and Adler rotstein himself was still screwed so uh you know don't you worry in 2010 he was sentenced to 50 years in prison Debra will get sentenced to 10 years serving for so is Tony's trial inched further for the murder of Melissa Lewis the Ponzi scheme became apartment I and it was learned that Scott and Melissa had had a relationship previously eventually though surprisingly it appeared it wasn't linked at all they were completely separate Tony went on trial in 2016 after having a term of being declared incompetent the trial didn't last that long the evidence against them circumstantial but there was a lot of it his DNA was found on her jacket his car was seen in the same car park Melissa's car was founded a person saw him scrubbing pepper spray off his arms the day after Melissa disappeared and then you got the cell phone evidence he took this woman at the prime of her life and he discards her like a piece of trash in the canal because she was an obstacle so if you believe that she's dead if you believe that he's the person that did it and that when he did it he had a premeditated intent to do so that ladies and gentlemen is first degree murder now one thing the defense brought up you know when they're going against the witnesses to try and discredit them was that uh Scott had offered a 250 000 reward for information leading to an arrest said an event said they were just making it up but of course by this stage Scott didn't have two pennies to rub together so it took the jury two hours to find him guilty he was sentenced to life in prison and that's the end of uh that old one little chapter it's quite a quite explosive kind of what I imagine Scott to be like he is under a fake name in prison because he wasn't informant so good for him quite ischemia going on he didn't waste it I'll give him that I do wonder if Melissa knew or was involved but but it doesn't make her murder Ani less tragic for that that is just a jealous I mean the scheme would have fallen apart if Melissa hadn't been killed but to me it's it's more surprising that they weren't linked than if they were match it thank you so much for watching uh I appreciate you taking the time to be here with this old guy all right here go on I'll see as always real soon in the next whole video Until then please take care of yourselves I love you foreign [Music]

Channel: That Chapter

Views: 1,189,969

Keywords: that chapter, scott Rothstein, melissa lewis, rothstein rosenfedlt alder

Id: 6UhwjRi7PaM

Length: 25min 11sec (1511 seconds)

Published: Tue Oct 26 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/WarpedScientistHT]

Yay! My hometown! I mean it’s FL so it was bound to happen