Yet another Ponzi scheme has led to yet another megayacht to be put up for auction – taking place this week.
On June 3 at the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale, Rick Levin & Associates will auction off a Warren S87 christened Miss Kimberly, plus a handful of other watertoys and exotic cars. It’s at the order of the U.S. Treasury, which seized the assets of Scott Rothstein, a once-prominent attorney in Florida, last fall.
Rothstein pleaded guilty in January to running a $1.2-billion Ponzi scheme from 2005 to 2009. According to prosecutors, he sold investors stakes in confidential settlement agreements. The agreements were reportedly pre-litigation negotiations in sexual harassment or whistle-blower cases; the cases were said to be ones that the individuals involved wanted to keep quiet. Prosecutors also state that in some situations, there were no settlements and even no clients, with false documentation created by Rothstein and others.
As for Miss Kimberly, Rothstein named her for his wife (who has not been charged). The 87-footer, similar to the sistership above, was built in 2007 and contains a master suite plus two guest staterooms, crew accommodations for three, a cockpit barbeque and refrigerator, and a tender garage fitted with a hydraulically lifting hatch and a hydraulic davit. The saloon is open to the helm, where three pedestal chairs face dramatically sloped windows. The twin MTU diesels have just over 450 hours apiece on them. Top speed is about 34 knots, with cruise speed around 28 knots.
Bidders wishing to acquire Miss Kimberly are required to bring a minimum deposit of $200,000 in the form of a cashier’s check on the day of the sale. Besides Miss Kimberly, the auction will feature a 55-foot Sea Ray Sundancer, a 50-foot Nor-Tech Supercat, a 33-foot Riva Aquariva Super, and Yamaha PWCs. The minimum bid deposits for these boats and watercraft range from $1,000 to $25,000.
Miss Kimberly, the rest of the boats, and the cars – including a Ferrari Spyder, a Bugatti Veyron, and a Rolls-Royce Phantom – are all being sold “as is, where is.”
UPDATE, JUNE 3: Miss Kimberly was sold for $2.5 million, the highest-bid item; the auction of all the watercraft and cars brought in $5.8 million.
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