The De Lorean Case
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De Lorean case will go to jury
Former sports car maker John Z. De Lorean's fraud and racketeering trial moved with the speed of a Model-T Ford down a rutted country lane until his lawyer last week called a single witness and rested the defense.
After closing arguments, scheduled for today in Detroit, U.S. District
Judge Julian A. Cook Jr. was to order jurors to decide whether the former General Motors Corp. vice president illegally siphoned $8.5 million of investors' money from his sports car company before it failed.
The only defense witness called was an FBI agent who sat at the prosecutors'
table throughout the trial. De Lorean's lawyer, Howard Weitzman, grilled agent Richard Eggleston for three days last week, his questioning punctuated by numerous objections from prosecutors.
The government had spent five weeks presenting its case, including 27
witnesses and 4,000 pages of documents.
De Lorean, a former star executive at GM who parlayed life in the fast lane
into a car company all his own, did not testify. A 15-count federal indictment last year charged De Lorean, 61, with stealing the $8.5 million from De Lorean Research Limited Partnership.
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Thursday, December 18, 1986
De Lorean found innocent
Jury clears maker of defunct sports car of racketeering, fraud
DETROIT - Former carmaker John De Lorean, accused of stealing millions of dollars from investors in his defunct sports car business, was found innocent yesterday of all charges of racketeering and fraud.
On the sixth day of jury deliberations, the former General Motors executive proclaimed "Praise God" and embraced his defense lawyers when the verdict was read in the U.S. District Court.
De Lorean, 61, in 1984 was acquitted of cocaine conspiracy charges after a
sensational trial in Los Angeles. He had been accused of stealing at least $8.5 million from 140 investors in his car company, which briefly built gull-winged cars in Northern Ireland.
De Lorean, who has said he intended to announce a new car venture if cleared,
shook his head in relief and wiped tears from his eyes as the jury foreman responded "not guilty" for 15 findings.
The silver-haired De Lorean, who was indicted in September 1985 on charges
that he stole investors' money through an elaborate scheme involving money transfers between European and U.S. banks and corporations, was defended by flamboyant Los Angeles lawyer Howard Wietzman, who won the businessman's acquittal on the drug charges.
Yesterday's verdict would appear to end the governmant's criminal case
against him, but De Lorean is still fighting claims by creditors, including the British government.
London and other creditors have frozen about $20 million of De Lorean's assets in bankruptcy proceedings in Detroit, which are expected to resume Jan. 21.
As in the Los Angeles trial, De Lorean was found innocent without taking the
stand in his own defense.
In the 10-week trial, the government presented a stream of former De Lorean
associates from the United States and Europe. The government hoped to support its contention that De Lorean masterminded an elaborate scheme to syphon investors' money under the guise of a purported loan that the prosecution said was a fraud.
De Lorean's defense argued that the $8.5 million in question was recieved
as part of a legitimate loan. Weitzman said the loan came from Colin Chapman, the deceased founder of the British auto group Lotus, which did engineering on the De Lorean car.
Weitzman told jurors in his closing argument eight days ago that the
government has persecuted his client.
Had he been convicted on all counts, De Lorean would have faced maximum
sentences of up to 87 years in prison and fines of up to $82,000.