Rothstein Associates Sentenced on Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud in Connection with Fraudulent Investment Scheme

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; and Jose A. Gonzalez, Special Agent in Charge, Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation Division (IRS CID), announce yesterday’s sentencing of defendants William Corte, 38, of Plantation, and Curtis Renie, 38, of Ft. Lauderdale. U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas sentenced each defendant to 37 months in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release. The defendants were also held jointly and severally liable for restitution in the amount of $62,388,521.35.

The evidence presented in court established that these defendants were employed by the law firm of Rothstein Rosenfeldt and Adler P.A. (RRA) in the IT Department. Renie was employed as director of information technology and Corte was a systems engineer. Renie and Corte created a fictitious website counterfeiting the legitimate website of TD Bank. At Scott Rothstein’s direction, the defendants posted false account balances and fraudulent incoming and outgoing wire transfers on the fictitious website to make it appear as if the accounts were well funded. On more than one occasion, the defendants modified the fictitious TD Bank website to reflect that RRA held up to $1.1 billion on deposit at TD Bank. In fact, however, no such funds were in the accounts. The false account balances were shown to investors to induce them to invest into the fraudulent investment scheme.

Mr. Ferrer commended the efforts of the FBI and the IRS CID in this ongoing investigation. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lawrence D. LaVecchio, Paul F. Schwartz and Jeffrey N. Kaplan.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls. Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at http://www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.