A South Florida man who wants to show jurors sex tapes and intimate photographs of himself and his wife will have to wait until at least next week for a judge's ruling on whether it's appropriate courtroom evidence.

But Rogerio Scotton, a professional race car driver, is acting as his own lawyer in his trial on federal charges that he ran a multimillion-dollar mail fraud and lied to immigration authorities about his marriage. He was allowed to show jurors some family-friendly photographs during his opening statement in court on Thursday.

The slideshow of photographs that Scotton showed the 15 jurors included pictures of him featured in racing and celebrity magazines — posing with musician Elton John, and with fast cars and pretty women at race events — and candid shots with his relatives.

Gesturing at a photograph of himself surrounded by a bevy of beautiful, scantily clad women after he raced in the 12 Hours of Le Mans event in Atlanta, he told jurors he had no reason to involve himself in a sham marriage to a Cuban woman to try to get U.S. permanent resident status, as prosecutors allege.

"[I'm here to] fight for my rights, fight for my life, [to] go back to my racing career," Scotton, 43, of Boca Raton and Margate, told the jurors.

Scotton — who has no legal training — did his best to connect with jurors during his opening statement in federal court in Fort Lauderdale.

"I hope the jury is going to have patience with me. I'm going to be so emotional," Scotton told them. "This has destroyed my life."

He asked the jurors: "You know what it is to be accused? … You get so desperate to prove you have not done anything wrong."

Scotton is representing himself, with help from standby attorney Jason Kreiss, because he clashed with six defense attorneys who previously represented him.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bertha Mitrani told jurors the criminal case is about "lies, theft and deception."

Scotton ran an online business based in Boca Raton that shipped packages and forwarded freight to his native Brazil.

He offered customers remarkably low shipping rates, the prosecutor said, because he set up dozens of fraudulent accounts with shipping companies FedEx, UPS and DHL.

Scotton pretended he was an authorized representative of major companies including Amazon, Wal-Mart and Target to ship his clients' items at no cost to himself, defrauding the shipping companies of millions of dollars, Mitrani said.

Scotton also lied to immigration authorities, telling them he lived with his Cuban wife in South Florida, Mitrani said. "That was not true, it was a lie … He wasn't living with her," she said.

Scotton also lied about the timing and circumstances of his last entry into the U.S., claiming it was in 1992 instead of 2008, prosecutors said.

In his defense, Scotton alleged he is the victim of retaliation from the U.S. Department of Justice and the shipping industry, and claimed he was a whistleblower who reported several companies he said were illegally shipping drugs.

Though prosecutors and the judge said in court that there is no evidence to support his whistleblower claim, Scotton told jurors his position is supported by hard evidence.

UPS agreed to forfeit $40 million to the U.S. government last year to settle a federal probe of shipments the company delivered for illegal online pharmacies, the U.S. Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration announced last year.

UPS admitted its employees knew that online pharmacies used UPS to ship controlled substances without valid prescriptions, according to news reports.

Late Thursday, Scotton gave prosecutors several videos and hundreds of photographs and files he wants to show to jurors. U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenbaum gave prosecutors until Monday to review the files and said she would decide then whether the photos and videos are appropriate evidence.

pmcmahon@tribune.com, 954-356-4533 or Twitter @SentinelPaula