MIAMI (Bloomberg) — Accused South Florida Ponzi scheme operator Scott Rothstein will plead guilty on January 27, defence lawyer Marc Nurik said yesterday.

Rothstein, 47, was charged on December 1 in federal court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida with two counts of wire fraud and three conspiracy charges. Prosecutors say his law firm was a racketeering enterprise that fleeced investors. Nurik declined to specify the charges Rothstein will plead to, saying a plea agreement was still being completed with prosecutors.

"He is accepting responsibility for his actions," Nurik said. Rothstein isn't cooperating with prosecutors, though he has worked with them to relinquish assets to repay victims, Nurik said.

Prosecutors said the Ponzi scheme began in 2005 and helped keep afloat his Fort Lauderdale law firm, Rothstein Rosenfeldt Adler PA. He used the proceeds of the scheme to make donations to politicians, prosecutors alleged. Many of the donations have been returned.

He and unnamed co-conspirators gave to the campaigns of local, state and federal politicians in a way that evaded limits on such donations and disguised the true source of the money, prosecutors alleged.

Rothstein told investors they could buy discounted stakes in settlements of sexual harassment and whistleblower lawsuits, prosecutors said. He told investors they would collect the full proceeds.

Rothstein used the money from the alleged scheme to buy 18 properties in Florida, two in Narragansett, Rhode Island, two condominiums in Manhattan, and an apartment in Brooklyn, New York, prosecutors said. He also had a white Lamborghini, a red Ferrari Spider, 304 pieces of jewelry, and a collection of sports memorabilia.

He surrendered more than 20 assets in an agreement with prosecutors signed before he was criminally charged and made public December 3.

Rothstein and his co-conspirators told investors that their investments were kept in trust accounts where the funds were verified by independent sources, including a financial adviser, prosecutors said. They fabricated so-called lock letters from an unnamed bank executive stating that account funds were intended only for specific investors.