Two Florida newspapers have published pictures of the birthday cake for Charlie Crist sponsored to the tune of $52,000 by Fort Lauderdale super attorney Scott Rothstein.
Remember, Rothstein has been accused of orchestrating a gigantic fraud scheme out of his firm, but Gov. Crist claims that Rothstein is just another supporter, suggesting this week he hardly knows the man.
“Well, he had supported me like he did to many others. … And that’s about the extent of it,” Crist said Wednesday. But many news reports and sources suggest, on the contrary, the two were close friends and Rothstein was a top moneyman for Crist, who used his relationship with Rothstein to reap benefits for the state GOP.
Enter the double-layer chocolate birthday cake.
The 2008 party to celebrate Crist’s 52nd was at The Breakers in Palm Beach, the oldest hotel in Florida, and one of the poshest. Lobbyists and industry groups shelled out a sponsorship fee of $5,200-per-candle on the cake, the Miami Herald, which obtained the picture, reports.
But Rothstein wanted to show up those bit players — companies like Disney and the private prison giant GEO Group — so he paid $52,000 to sponsor the entire confection. Thus, the cake was bedecked with delicate white chocolate sheets reading, “Happy Birthday, Governor Charlie Crist. From Scott and Kimberly Rothstein.” (It does not appear to feature, as we reported yesterday, a logo of Rothstein’s law firm.)
And it didn’t stop there. Rothstein actually joined Crist and Carol Rome, now Crist’s wife, in blowing out the candles.
Check out this picture that was displayed in Rothstein’s law firm office, courtesy of the Broward-Palm Beach New Times:
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