Related Companies CEO Stephen Ross and his colleague, Miami condo mogul Jorge Perez, head of the Related Group, had $4 million invested with accused fraudster Scott Rothstein, according to bankruptcy court documents filed Dec. 22, Paul Brinkmann of the South Florida Business Journal reported. Related PR, whose mailing addresses matches that of a Miami office of the Related Group, appears on a list of investors in the Fort Lauderdale attorney’s former law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after Rothstein’s massive Ponzi scheme was revealed. Perez is director and president of Related PR and Ross is a director, according to state documents. Most of the other investors on the list are from Florida, but a group of New York investors, including Ross and Zack Hampton Bacon III, a hedge fund manager who invested $500,000 with Rothstein, were also scammed. [SFBJ]

Real estate transactions were among the many aspects of commerce and law thrown into disarray after the Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler law firm in Fort Lauderdale was hit with an involuntary bankruptcy filing late yesterday. Attorney Scott Rothstein allegedly ran a massive Ponzi scheme in addition to the legal business, and investors are now trying to recover money they say is missing. Prosecutors said $1.4 million from an escrow account for a stock and real estate transaction was spent immediately after being moved into the firm’s operating account, causing observers to suspect foul play. The transaction had involved Ricardo Martinez and Camilo Manrique, clients of attorneys in the firm’s Venezuela office, according to court records. [Sun-Sentinel]