Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink said she learned a lesson from accused Ponzi-schemer Scott Rothstein, the Broward County lawyer and political powerhouse who pleaded guilty this morning to racketeering and other offenses.

Rothstein, a major GOP contributor, and his wife held a fund-raiser for Sink’s gubernatorial campaign in August and donated $200,000 to the Florida Democratic Party before being accused of bilking his law firm’s clients and others of $1.2 billion.

At The Associated Press annual gathering of editors and reporters, Sink said the “first rule of business is to know who you’re dealing with.”

When asked if she applied the same bromide to her dealings with Rothstein, she bristled.

“Well obviously I didn’t because he is an admitted con artist,” Sink said. “Here’s a guy who conned all of Ft. Lauderdale and most of South Florida.”

She ticked off the names of other lawyers whose political stars have fallen including Bernie Madoff and banker Allen Stanford.

“I learned a lesson there,” she said of Rothstein. “Ask more questions.”