Scott Rothstein and His Amex Card: He Never Left Home Without It

In the new movie Up in the Air — which is worth seeing, if you haven’t already — Ryan Bingham, played by George Clooney, is on a quest to rack up 10 million frequent flyer miles. That’s a heck of a lot of miles. In the Walter Kirn novel the film was based on, it was a more realistic one million miles (but, as film critic Kenneth Turan notes, “that’s product placement and inflation for you”).
To some people, however, 10 million miles — or points, the credit-card version of miles, also redeemable for free air travel and other goodies — is chump change. From the Miami Herald:

[Ponzi schemer Scott] Rothstein (inset left) 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. Generally, American Express doles out one point for every dollar charged on the card, which can be used to buy merchandise, airline tickets, hotel rooms, restaurant meals and gift cards.

So, what did Scott Rothstein do to accrue all those points?


It seems that Scott Rothstein, unlike Ryan Bingham, built up his mileage through purchases rather than travel:

Rothstein — a disbarred Fort Lauderdale lawyer charged with selling $1.2 billion in bogus legal settlements over the past four years — used a lot of that money to pay his Amex bill, according to a new court filing. It did not outline what he bought to rack up such an enormous tally, but his gold toilet seat, flashy jewelry, powerboats and fleet of foreign sports cars are all possibilities.

The feds’ desire to get their hands on all these miles is understandable. If you value each mile at one cent, a fairly conventional valuation, you’re looking at over $200,000. Even if you value each mile at half a cent, you’re still in six-figure territory.
Rothstein, by the way, isn’t the only well-known lawyer addicted to miles. Sonnenschein partner and bestselling author Scott Turow recently spent 16 hours in transit, just to preserve his Executive Platinum status on American Airlines.
But at least Turow earned his miles the old-fashioned way: he flew them.
Scott Rothstein racked up 20 million Amex points [Miami Herald]
Indicted Fla. Lawyer Had 20 Million Reward Points [Associated Press]
Long Day’s Journey Into Platinum [New York Times]

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