White-Collar Crime
Dreier Stays in Penthouse Due to Judge’s Ruling, Son’s Bar Mitzvah Cash
Posted May 12, 2009, 09:34 am CST
By Debra Cassens Weiss
Lawyer Marc Dreier will get to stay in his penthouse apartment a while longer.
Dreier pleaded guilty yesterday in a scheme to sell investors phony promissory notes, costing hundreds of millions of dollars in losses.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said Dreier may remain free on bail until he is sentenced on June 13, the New York Law Journal reports. Rakoff said Dreier was not a flight risk or a danger, and he had to follow the bail statute despite a “repugnance for Mr. Dreier's crimes."
Dreier’s lawyer, Gerald Shargel, had argued Dreier has no money and is not a flight risk, Bloomberg reports. He said most of the money used to pay for Dreier’s food came from bar mitzvah gifts to his college-age son Spencer.
Dreier pleaded guilty yesterday to securities and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities and wire fraud, and money laundering. He has been staying at his California penthouse under armed guard paid for by his sister, his 88-year-old mother and a friend, Shargel said. Dreier has signed papers allowing the guards to use lethal force to stop him if he tries to flee.
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