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Fact-Checking Charge that Charlie Crist Swindled Investor

politifact.com

If you watch television is the state of Florida, you have probably seen a TV ad from the Republican Party of Florida featuring a man who says he was swindled by Ponzi schemer Scott Rothstein.

The man goes on to describe Rothstein's connections to Charlie Crist and claims that he was swindled by Crist, too.

That last claim got the attention of PolitiFact Florida.

"We gave this our worst rating, Pants On Fire," said PolitiFact editor Angie Holan. "There's no reasonable way you can look at the evidence and conclude that Crist had any sort of role in this Ponzi scheme that Scott Rothstein was running."

The RPOF ad said that Crist took campaign contributions from Rothstein. But, Holan said that doesn't make Crist special.

"One of the things Rothstein liked to do was to give money to politicians," Holan explained. "But he gave money to a lot more people than Charlie Crist. And there's no reasonable way to think that Crist had a hand in the Ponzi scheme, so we rated it Pants On Fire."

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