What’s in His Wallet?

The Miami Herald reports that Ponzi Prince (second these days only to King Madoff) Scott Rothstein really enjoyed using his AMEX card. Rothstein accumulated close to 21 million points. Move over George Clooney and your paltry 10 million American Airlines miles, and make room for Rothstein in that captain’s chair.

Of course, the Feds are well aware of the Rothstein’s massive point total – and they’re after it. In a novel strategy, the feds are looking to take possession of those points and use them to help pay back Rothstein’s victims.

Once the points translate into merchandise or cold hash cash, it still won’t come close to the estimated $1.2 billion that Rothstein bilked investors out of.

Rothstein racked up 20,920,701 rewards points on his Amex card — and the feds want to grab them all to help pay back his victims. No definitive word yet on what purchases were made with the card, but it seems likely suspects include: one gold toilet seat, some bling, Miami Vice-ish powerboats, and a collection of sports cars. In addition, Rothstein probably used the card for travel expenses associated with his fraudulent scheme. And he did pay the bills using those Ponzi “proceeds.” Considering that AMEX awards one point for every dollar spent, that’s a lot of spending – even if Rothstein picked up some bonus points along the way.

It’s been a bad week for Rothstein. The feds want his AMEX points, they discovered his Swiss bank account, and now a federal judge ruled that his life insurer can dump him for not revealing that his stated income came from a criminal enterprise.

AMEX needs a new ad:

• Gold Toilet Seats and sports cars: you’re our kind of customer
• Fancy jewelry and fast boats: we’ve got you covered
• Accumulating massive points without  questions: priceless

But for all of your criminal endeavors, there’s only one card: Visa.