Attorney Marc Dreier Gets Unsecured $10M Bail, Under Strict House Arrest
Like another alleged white-collar criminal who has been much in the news lately, attorney Marc Dreier will soon be out of jail and under house arrest. He is to be released on an unsecured $10 million bond, a federal judge in New York City decided yesterday, over the objections of prosecutors that Dreier shouldn’t get bail because he is a flight risk.
However, Dreier, 58, will be confined to his home, under 24-hour guard, after he is released on Monday, just like alleged $50 billion Ponzi scheme mastermind Bernard Madoff, according to the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.). Dreier’s mother and son will sign the unsecured bond, and will thus be responsible for paying the $10 million if he absconds after his release.
“The judge also ordered that all means of communication, other than a land-line telephone needed for electronic monitoring, be removed from Mr. Dreier’s apartment and that no visitors would be allowed without approval from the government,” the newspaper writes.
Accused of stealing some $400 million from sophisticated investors and clients, Dreier had previously been granted $20 million bond, but said he had no assets with which to pay the $10 million cash required under that bond package.
The Wall Street Journal article doesn’t say how U.S. District Judge Jud Rakoff resolved an earlier concern about whether the armed guards could shoot to kill, should Dreier try to escape.
However, in a copy of his order (PDF), which is provided by New York Lawyer, the judge says that the bail package proposed by Dreier—who is described in the order by the judge, for bail purposes, as “a master of deceit and a doyen of dishonesty”—does a great deal to reduce the risk that he will flee.
And, in a condition added by Rakoff, Dreier must “expressly consent in writing to the use, by the armed security guards, of ‘temporary preventive detention and the use of reasonable force’ to thwart any attempt to flee,” the order states.
Perhaps indulging in a bit of satire, Rakoff also noted that all Americans are equal under the law and constitutionally entitled under the Eighth Amendment to bail that is not excessive—although those with access to money are more likely to win release than those without it.
“How glorious to be an American citizen,” he writes, in a country where “citizen Marc Dreier, whom the Government accuses of colossal criminality,” can look to the constitution for actual protection. “In so many countries, the rights of citizens are not worth the paper they are printed on. But here, any citizen—good, bad, indifferent, famous, infamous, or obscure—may call upon the courts to vindicate his constitutional rights and expect that call to be honored.”
Under Rakoff’s order, Dreier’s relatives must pay the estimated $210,000 cost, over three months, of having armed guards monitor his home to prevent his escape.
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Can Guards Shoot Attorney Marc Dreier? Judge Requests Research Memo”
ABAJournal.com: “Attorney Marc Dreier is Indicted in Alleged $400M Schemes”
Associated Press: “House arrest for NY lawyer in $400m fraud case”
