DeKalb judicial candidate indicted on theft charges
DeKalb County judicial candidate Michael Rothenberg was indicted Tuesday for diverting more than $400,000 in investment money for personal use, including meals, massages and campaign finances.
Rothenberg is running to unseat Superior Court Judge Gail Flake in the non-partisan race to be decided July 31. A DeKalb grand jury formally charged Rothenberg with six felony counts of theft by taking.
"I'm shocked," Rothenberg, 34, said Tuesday. "I'm talking to my representatives to see what to do next."
DeKalb District Attorney Robert James said the charges stem from money collected by Rothenberg's investment firm, Four Five LLC.
Court records say the company traded sophisticated international bank instruments and offered risk-free returns of 300 percent every 14 days. The firm also said the majority of the investment money would remain in Rothenberg's attorney trust account.
Instead, James said, Rothenberg diverted $440,000 to his own use, including his campaign.
"He would frequent local DeKalb County spots such as Farm Burger, J. Christopher's and Walmart on other people's dimes," James said. "This isn't just a clear violation of the law, but also a violation of the trust of the investors of this development corporation."
James said the next step will be to obtain a warrant for Rothenberg's arrest. He also can turn himself in.
"It's baffling and it's troubling," James said of the case.
James added that the timing of the indictment had nothing to do with the upcoming election.
"I was looking at it before he was a candidate," he said. "This is just us doing our job. We've been working on this for quite some time."
Flake has no comment on the indictment, her secretary, Diane Kennedy, said.
Rothenberg, who lives in Decatur, works for the Boyd Law Group in Suwanee. In 2010, he lost a runoff election against Courtney Johnson for a seat on the DeKalb Superior Court bench.
That same year, a Colorado investment company sued Rothenberg and Four Five LLC, accusing them of running a fraud scheme and refusing to return the vast majority of the company's $1.35 million investment. In March 2011, a federal judge entered a $1.3 million judgment against Rothenberg and ordered him to pay $107,273 in attorneys' fees.
In June 2011, the Securities and Exchange Commission sued Rothenberg and Four Five, saying they raised more than $1.7 million from at least two investors in 2010. The suit said Rothenberg returned $910,000 but "misappropriated at least $800,000 of investor funds."
A month after the SEC suit was filed, a federal judge entered a judgment prohibiting Rothenberg and his company from engaging in securities fraud. The judgment said Rothenberg and Four Five had agreed to the resolution without admitting or denying the SEC's allegations.
About the Author
Bill Rankin has been an AJC reporter for more than 30 years. His father, Jim Rankin, worked as an editor for the newspaper for 26 years, retiring in 1986. Bill has primarily covered the state’s court system, doing all he can do to keep the scales of justice on an even keel. Since 2015, he has been the host of the newspaper’s Breakdown podcast.
