The waterfront Fort Lauderdale home that belonged to Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein may soon go up for sale, along with several other luxury properties that federal prosecutors are seeking to forfeit to pay off the victims of his $1.4 billion fraud. The properties include two New York apartments and a pair of mansions in Rhode Island. Prosecutors are currently petitioning a judge to take title to the portfolio, and have already reached several agreements with outside parties who hold interests in the properties. Once the judge grants approval for the takeover, some properties will be auctioned, while others will hit the market through brokers. The 9,235-square-foot mansion, located at 30 Isla Bahia Drive in the tony Harbor Beach enclave, is the “main, main asset,” said Rothstein’s defense attorney, Marc Nurik. It has six bathrooms, eight bathrooms, an elevator, wine room, pool and hot tub, and was most recently appraised at $5 million. [Sun Sentinel]

Federal prosecutors moved yesterday to seize more than $75 million in assets from convicted fraudster Scott Rothstein, the Fort Lauderdale who was pleaded guilty in January to a $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme. Those assets include the $6.5 million Isla Bahia Drive home where Rothstein’s wife, Kim, had been living rent-free while she awaited a judge’s final forfeiture action, and more than 20 other properties that Rothstein surrendered to the federal government in December. Rothstein paid roughly $47 million in total for the real estate assets now being targeted. Kim Rothstein had reportedly been renting out Rothstein’s other mansions in the meantime. Rothstein is facing up to 100 years in prison at his scheduled May 6 sentencing. [Miami Herald] and [Sun Sentinel]

Kim Rothstein is planning to move out of the $6.5 million Isla Bahia Drive home she once shared with her husband, Scott Rothstein, before his $1.2 billion Ponzi scheme unfolded. The Rothsteins still own the home until the final forfeiture order is issued by a judge, but her attorney, Scott Saidel of Boca Raton, told the Sun Sentinel that Kim is eager to move out as soon as possible. “That house holds a great deal of negative energy for her right now,” Saidel said. Scott Rothstein, a Fort Lauderdale attorney, pleaded guilty to five counts of racketeering, money laundering and fraud in January and is facing up to 100 years in prison when he is sentenced May 6. Some 22 properties owned by Rothstein were turned over to the federal government in December. Last week, bankruptcy attorneys revealed that Kim Rothstein has been living rent-free in the home and renting out her husband’s other multi-milliion dollar properties to tenants since the scandal came to light. [Sun Sentinel]