Settlement saves convicted attorney from making lengthy handcuffed trip to testify about law firm
A dispute between a bankruptcy administrator and a company to which $137 million was transferred before Marc Dreier’s law firm collapsed has been settled.
So the former New York lawyer, who is serving a 20-year federal prison term in Minnesota for defrauding hedge fund investors of $400 million, won’t have to testify after all in a Manhattan trial, reports Bloomberg.
In addition to the payments made to the company, Dreier was to have discussed whether the fraud he operated from his Park Avenue law firm was a Ponzi scheme and when it started.
Citing the difficulty of the trip, Dreier had unsuccessfully sought permission to testify by video or telephone. “While I do not expect the parties or the court to be especially sympathetic to my own hardship, I point out that if I am compelled to be in New York I face an ordeal that entails several weeks of travel in each direction, handcuffed and shackled the whole time, with layovers in county courts,” he wrote.
Although the U.S. Marshals Service operates an airline transport system, prisoners often travel in a secured bus or van with other inmates headed to various destinations when time is not of the essence, making overnight stops at jails along the way on lengthy trips. Hence, it can take a considerable amount of time to complete a trip to a distant state. A Forbes post provides details.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Judge nixes ex-lawyer’s plea to avoid weeks of handcuffed travel, says he must attend law firm trial”
