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]

Kimberly Rothstein, the wife of convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein, is living rent-free in one of her husband’s former mansions, and renting out his other multi-milliion dollar properties to tenants, bankruptcy lawyers said Friday. In an interview with the attorneys last week, which has not yet been made public, Rothstein said the government had risked letting the properties lose value by not paying some utility bills and leaving them unsecured. Her husband pleaded guilty to scamming creditors out of $1.2 billion and faces life in prison at his May 6 sentencing. Some 22 properties owned by Rothstein, including the waterfront Fort Lauderdale home where he resided, were turned over to the federal government in December. “The government has apparently delegated its duty to property manage and safeguard certain of the property subject to forefeiture,” Paul Singerman, one of the attorneys on the bankruptcy case, wrote in court filings.