Scott Rothstein, the Florida lawyer whose firm asked U.S. prosecutors to investigate the alleged disappearance of $500 million in investor funds, was accused in a government filing of conducting a “Ponzi” scheme.

Acting U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Sloman in Miami is seeking the civil forfeiture of eight properties linked to the lawyer.

“There is probable cause to believe that the above- described defendant properties were acquired in connection with a ‘Ponzi’ scheme, conducted by attorney Scott Rothstein” and others, according to Sloman’s filing yesterday in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

The law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler PA, asked U.S. prosecutors to investigate the possible misappropriation of funds, the firm’s attorney, Kendall Coffey, said in a Nov. 3 interview.

Rothstein, the Fort Lauderdale-based firm’s co-founder, is believed to have taken the funds from a side business that dealt in legal-case settlements, Coffey said then.

Investors were allegedly being enticed to invest in pay-out plans for settlements that didn’t actually exist, prosecutors said. The payments were scheduled over as many as 12 months.

“The entire investment scheme was a fraud,” Sloman’s office said in the court document. Some of the investor proceeds were used to acquire the properties now sought by the U.S., all of which are located in Florida.

Federal prosecutors accused a high-profile South Florida attorney of concocting a Ponzi scheme that lured millions of dollars from investors with promises of big payoffs from legal settlements that never existed, according to court documents filed Monday.

The civil complaint, seeking forfeiture of eight pieces of property owned by lawyer Scott Rothstein, marks the first time prosecutors have leveled fraud allegations at him_ even though criminal charges have yet to be announced. It was filed the same day FBI and Internal Revenue Service agents seized luxury cars, boats, bank accounts and other possessions of the once high-flying Rothstein. The forfeiture complaint put the value of the real estate at more than $18 million.

In the complaint, prosecutors claim that Rothstein operated the Ponzi scheme since 2005 using his law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler. Investors were promised fat profits of 20 percent or more by paying lump sums to people who had won legal settlements that would supposedly pay out larger amounts over a longer period.

It was all a lie, the complaint contends. Like all Ponzi schemes, new investor money was used to pay earlier investors to keep up an illusion of success, backed up by false documents showing bank accounts containing fictional large sums.

The Senate gave President Barack Obama a major victory Monday in his efforts to remake the federal courts, confirming a judge who will tip the political balance on the once-conservative appeals court based in Richmond.

The 72-16 vote for U.S. District Judge Andre Davis gives Democratic nominees a 6-5 edge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which has been tough in death penalty cases, backed abortion restrictions and supported President George W. Bush's detainee policies.

Davis, of Baltimore, was the sixth of Obama's court nominees to be confirmed, including Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Immediately after approving Davis, the Senate voted 88-0 to confirm a seventh Obama nominee — Charlene Edwards Honeywell — for a district court seat in Florida.

Despite the overwhelming support for both nominees, Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and ranking committee Republican Jeff Sessions of Alabama squared off in a never-ending battle over judges. Each blamed the other's party for years of blocking tactics.

Leahy pointed out that 28 judges were confirmed during Bush's first year. Sessions argued that the average time from nomination to confirmation for Bush's appellate court nominees was 350 days, a far longer wait than for Davis, who was nominated April 2. Sessions opposed his confirmation.

Davis had been caught in judicial politics before. President Bill Clinton nominated him for the 4th Circuit in October 2000, but the Senate didn't vote before Bush took office.

Prior to the Senate votes Monday, there were 21 appellate vacancies and 76 more for district courts. Since the Supreme Court usually hears about 80 cases a year, the appellate courts usually are the last judicial stop in deciding many of the nation's most controversial legal issues.

No appellate court has been more ripe for change than the 4th Circuit, which hears appeals from courts in West Virginia, Maryland, the Carolinas and Virginia. Senators have battled for years over its nominees, leaving seats unfilled for years.

A judge tasked with unraveling an alleged $2.8 million kickback scheme involving two Pennsylvania judges says they presided over a juvenile justice system "run amok."

Senior Bucks County Judge Arthur Grim told a state investigatory panel Monday that former Judge Mark Ciavarella (shiv-uh-REL'-uh) sentenced juvenile offenders to jail without exploring the charges against them.

Grim's testimony follows his review of thousands of cases after the scandal came to light.

Ciavarella and former Luzerne County Judge Michael Conahan are accused of accepting payoffs from two private juvenile detention centers.

The state Supreme Court last month threw out thousands of juvenile cases that came before Ciavarella. It said none of the young offenders got a fair hearing.

A survey of the nation’s top 250 law firms shows they collectively shed 5,259 lawyers in the past year, a drop of 4 percent.

The drop is the largest since the National Law Journal started collecting the information in 1978. The survey has recorded only two other declines—a drop of less than 1 percent in 1993, and a 1 percent drop in 1992, according to a National Law Journal story on the results.

The number of associates at the large firms dropped by 8.7 percent, while the number of partners increased by slightly less than 1 percent, the story says. The number of lawyers in the “other” category, including of counsel and staff lawyers, dropped by 8.9 percent.

The numbers indicate a law firm strategy of saving partners, according to law firm consultant Ward Bower of Altman Weil. “The cuts made were done primarily to preserve workloads for partners," he told the National Law Journal. "It suggests that work done by partners is work that associates could do.”

The law firm with the largest percentage reduction in lawyers was Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson. It lost 168 lawyers, a decline of 26.4 percent, according to the article. The firm that lost the most lawyers in raw numbers was Latham & Watkins. It shrunk by 444 lawyers, a decline of 19.1 percent.

The largest law firm, according to the survey, is Baker & McKenzie, with 3,949 lawyers.

The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to review the case of a Montgomery County man condemned for shooting a woman and dumping her body in a lake so he could steal her red convertible.

Michael James “Romeo” Perry was convicted of the slaying of 50-year-old Sandra Stotler during a burglary of her home near Lake Conroe eight years ago.

The 27-year-old Perry also was a suspect but never was charged in the slayings of Stotler’s 16-year-old son, Adam, and an 18-year-old friend, Jeremy Richardson.

Perry was driving Adam Stotler’s SUV when he was arrested following a police shootout and says a confession he made to police is untrue.

He does not have an execution date.