Dreier to Plead Guilty to All Counts, His Lawyer Says
Lawyer Marc Dreier, accused of selling $700 million in phony securities to investors, will plead guilty to all charges in a May 11 hearing, his lawyer told a judge yesterday.
Defense lawyer Gerald Shargel said Dreier will enter the plea even though there is no deal with prosecutors, the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.) reports. He will plead guilty to eight counts, including securities and wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering, according to the New York Law Journal.
The conspiracy count carries a potential five-year prison term, while the others all carry penalties of up to 20 years in prison, the New York Law Journal says. Shargel had previously indicated he expected his client to plead guilty.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff of Manhattan denied a motion, without prejudice, to dismiss the securities-fraud charge, the stories say. Shargel said there was a legal argument that the notes sold by Dreier were not actually securities.
Shargel said after the hearing that Dreier wants to put an end to the prosecution because he accepts responsibility for what he did, according to the New York Law Journal story. Dreier accomplished a lot, Shargel said, but he “simply went off the tracks. … I’m sure no one will ever know why he did what he did.”
