Rothstein fighting feds to cut 50-year prison term

Convicted Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein has nothing to lose — and he’s planning to fight federal prosecutors tooth and nail to try to force them to give him a break on his 50-year prison term, according to court records filed Friday.

Rothstein “strenuously objects” to prosecutors’ decision — filed earlier this week — that they will not recommend any reduction in his punishment, his attorney Marc Nurik wrote in court documents.

Rothstein plans to file claims that prosecutors abused their discretion and breached their obligations under his plea agreement, Nurik wrote. He will also argue that Rothstein did not lie to the government and that “under all notions of fairness and due process” he is entitled to a reduced prison term.

Veteran defense attorneys said Rothstein’s planned fight with the federal government is a hopeless endeavor.

“Yeah, good luck with that,” said Paul Petruzzi, who has been representing criminal defendants in South Florida for more than 20 years.

What does Petruzzi tell his clients when they sign cooperation agreements with the feds?

“I tell them that it’s 100 times more serious than getting married and you’ve got to keep your end of the bargain,” Petruzzi said. “You sign a contract with the feds and they have all the discretion and all the decision-making power — if you lie to

them, it’s ‘Sayonara!’ ”

There is no way for the defense to force prosecutors to recommend any cut in Rothstein’s punishment, the experts said. The only way would be if they could prove prosecutors acted in bad faith — which the lawyers said would be impossible because of the amount of evidence they have that Rothstein lied.

After Rothstein fled to Morocco in late October 2009 and then returned to face criminal prosecution, he cooperated extensively with prosecutors and civil attorneys who prosecuted his allies and were able to refund all of the money that investors poured into the fraudulent scheme.

Rothstein pleaded guilty to several federal offenses in 2010 and admitted he operated a $1.4 billion Ponzi scheme.

But prosecutors said in court that, during their investigation, they figured out that Rothstein had lied to them about significant matters and that he had tried to hide some of his assets from them.

The prosecution never used him as a witness against any defendant and all but one of the people who were prosecuted for their roles in the case pleaded guilty.

The only defendant who went to trial, disbarred lawyer Christina Kitterman, called Rothstein to testify in her defense. The jury convicted her anyway.

Rothstein, now 55, is serving his punishment at a top-secret prison in the federal Bureau of Prisons’ witness protection program for inmates. He was placed there because he helped authorities arrest and convict at least one defendant who had Mafia ties.

Senior U.S. District Judge James Cohn agreed Friday to give Rothstein and Nurik two months to make their arguments about why they think Rothstein still deserves a cut. The judge would then either hold a hearing to allow both sides to make their arguments or issue a ruling based on their filed arguments.

Reached by phone on Friday, Nurik said it would be premature to comment on what arguments he will make.

“The severe … result of the actions sought by the government is a de facto life sentence for a man who has provided substantial cooperation to the government through hundreds of hours of debriefings and whose cooperation has led to the successful prosecution of approximately 30 individuals and the unprecedented recovery of 100% of the victim losses,” Nurik wrote in the court records he filed.

Rothstein