Fla. Atty Gets 5 Years For Raising Millions For Ponzi Scheme

Law360 (August 27, 2021, 9:25 PM EDT) — A South Florida attorney received a five-year sentence Friday for his role in raising nearly $149 million from investors as part of a $322 million Ponzi scheme run through purported commercial lender 1 Global Capital LLC.

U.S. District Judge Roy Altman in Fort Lauderdale handed down the statutory maximum available under a plea deal that former Kopelowitz Ostrow partner Andrew Dale Ledbetter, 79, reached with federal prosecutors earlier this year, rejecting Ledbetter’s request for a downward variance to two years. The judge also ordered him to pay nearly $149 million in restitution, relinquish his law license and serve three years of supervised…