Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Frank Adderley gave an interview to former city employee Elgin Jones, now a journalist with the South Florida Times, about his relationship with Scott Rothstein, the Ponzi convict.

From left, radio personality "Footy,'' Chief Frank Adderley, Kim
and Scott Rothstein.

Chief Adderley said it's not fair for people to say the police missed "red flags'' about Rothstein's ill-gotten gains.

Here's a link to Jones's interview, which can be viewed on video.

Adderley is under investigation by the city, because of his relationship with Rothstein. For one thing, he flew on a jet to a football game in New York but didn't report it as a gift as the law requires. Rothstein was on the plane but it was owned by Ted Morse, a friend of Rothstein and Adderley's. Adderley filed the disclosure late, after the media brought the flight to light.

"I think we need to look at Scott Rothstein for who he was, and now the guy that he is,'' Adderley told Jones.

"Who he was? He was a successful businessman. He had 70-plus attorneys that worked in his firm. He interacted with charities throughout our city, throughout our county. He dealt with directors of those charities. He dealt with politicians, who he made a number of, had a number of fundraisers and donations to them.
"And I kind of think it's unfair here that the police department is the only person, based on the people that he was in contact with, that should have figured out that he was part of a Ponzi scheme. I find it that the police is definitely an easy target for any type of subject, and I just think that it's unfair that we're being portrayed as the person who quote 'missed the red flag' when no one gave us the red flag.
"No one ever called the police department and said that this guy was conducting an illegal activity. No one contacted Crime Stoppers indicating this illegal activity was taking place in our city. So for someone to say that we missed the red flag and no one showed us the red flag, I think it's unfair.''

> Discuss this entry