Steven Lippman, 49, of Plantation, was charged with conspiracy to violate the Federal Election Campaign Act, to defraud the U.S., and to defraud a financial institution.
Prosecutors said Lippman, a shareholder in Rothstein’s now defunct law firm, Rothstein, Rosenfeldt and Adler (RRA), was illegally reimbursed by RRA for certain political contributions he made including the presidential campaign of John McCain. The indictment claims Rothstein enlisted Lippman and others to contribute tens of thousands of dollars to the McCain campaign and RRA would unlawfully reimburse them.
In one instance, prosecutors said, Lippman made a $67,800 contribution to McCain-Palin Victory 2008. Lippman, in turn, received a check from RRA in the amount of $77,500, which constituted reimbursement of the funds he used to make the contribution.
Lippman also allegedly took part in a bank fraud scheme with Rothstein that made it appear RRA was an affluent and successful law firm and to gain additional time to meet the financial obligations of RRA. Prosecutors claim he did this in a scheme called “check kiting,” which is floating checks between accounts to inflate posted balances.
Lippman was also charged with tax fraud for failing to report certain expense reimbursements and other income from RRA.