Whistleblower Tells the Fascinating Story of His Intersection with Ponzi Scheme Master Scott Rothstein

BAY HARBOR ISLANDS, Fla., Sept. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Alan Sakowitz, a Miami attorney and real estate developer, details his interaction with Ponzi scheme master Scott Rothstein in Miles Away ... Worlds Apart, now available from Amazon.com and at bookstores. Sakowitz tells the amazing, entertaining story of how good people were led astray by Rothstein, who through his 70-attorney Ft. Lauderdale law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, offered up fake investment opportunities and bilked those investors out of 1.4 billion dollars. Sakowitz's experience with Rothstein, who was recently sentenced to 50 years in prison, acts as a cautionary tale for a culture fascinated and seduced by the trappings of wealth, and offers remedies on how to change that culture to one focused around putting the welfare of others before material gain.

The Importance of Community and Selflessness

Sakowitz himself, in his new memoir of the case, Miles Away ... Worlds Apart, seems to offer a subtle theory. It is a theory with moral and psychological implications, but he never expresses it overtly. What he does, with devastating clarity, is contrast Rothstein's self-serving behavior with the selfless dedication to community shown by his neighbors in North Miami Beach, mere miles from Rothstein's opulent office in Fort Lauderdale.

Could it be that impropriety has its own allure? Does the pain of the embarrassed businessman add panache to the money? Is there a kick in being a partner to blackmail, even if plied within a technical framework of legality?

There are other components to this story, and Sakowitz covers them all thoroughly. You get a flavor of the Rothstein persona, the atmosphere of excess somehow hovering at the fringe of lawyerly respectability. Various politicians, local, statewide and federal, march across the stage with one hand slapping Scott Rothstein on the back and the other hand reaching into his larcenous pocket. There is enough comedy and tragedy here for a lifetime.

But Sakowitz will not leave this story to wallow in the realm of sensationalism. He keeps making us look through the moral viewfinder to see the character of the players. How the manipulator manipulates, how the manipulated are manipulated. We do not get to walk away feeling superior to this den of thieves, this band of buffoons. We cannot tsk-tsk our way through, disapproving of evil and disdainful of naivete. We have to look inside ourselves and see just how clean we are, just how open our own eyes are ... or not.

Alan Sakowitz is available for interviews and appearances in the greater Miami area, and hopes to bring his experience to the largest possible audience, in order to stop similar frauds from being perpetuated on other hard-working Americans.

For information: http://www.LegacySeriesPress.com or contact: [email protected],  Phone: 305-655-1234

Book trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSzq12koYG0

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SOURCE Alan Sakowitz