FBI spokeswoman Judy Orihuela said the agency cannot comment on any rumors of ties to organized crime while it is still investigating Rothstein.

Federal authorities cited money-laundering statutes when seizing documents at RRA’s offices. When surrendering his law license, Rothstein admitted there was enough evidence that he misappropriated funds to require more disciplinary proceedings with the Florida Bar.

In the big picture of money laundering, having an attorney as a front man would be ideal, Bagley said.

“The law requires due diligence that banks and attorneys know who their investors are,” Bagley said. “An attorney is a trustee for funds, right? It seems to be a perfect mechanism for money laundering.”

Tampa-based writer Scott M. Deitche, another expert on organized crime, has been watching the Rothstein case.

“South Florida has developed into an area where mobsters are doing more complicated financial crimes, as opposed to the traditional loan-sharking,” Deitche said. “They’ve been getting in on mortgage fraud for sure.”

Deitche has written a book about the Trafficante crime family, which was based in Tampa.

In a federal warrant request, the federal government alleged that, since 2005, Rothstein ran a Ponzi scheme, which may have amounted to more than $1 billion.

One of Deitche’s books was about Steve Raffa, leader of the Trafficante family’s South Florida faction. He committed suicide in his Pembroke Pines home, after he was indicted with 13 others in a massive money-laundering and racketeering investigation by the local FBI. In his writings about Raffa, Deitche says the accused swindler hung himself in the early morning hours of November 16, 2000, less than three weeks after his arrest.

Even if Rothstein wasn’t connected to the mob, he was certainly concerned about leaving money behind if he lost his life. He took out a life-insurance policy in the last days of his alleged Ponzi scheme, and paid cash for it.

Herbert Stettin, the court-appointed trustee for Rothstein’s failed law firm, said he recently discovered the policy and is trying to determine its value to the bankruptcy estate.