De Lorean vs. Almost Everybody

By Alessandra Stanley

Was he entrapped, or just caught in the act of being himself?

"This is the big guy, and they smell blood, blood." The lawyer's voice lowered ominously: "There is no stopping them now. It is like sharks in a feeding frenzy." Pacing before the jury of six men and six women, wiry, emotive Defense Attorney Howard Weitzman was a consummate showman. Stolid in contrast, Assistant U.S. Attorney James P. Walsh meticulously outlined the Government's case with the help of flow charts and excerpts from recorded conversations printed on large posters. The defendant followed each statement intently, occasionally running a restless hand through his mane of silver hair. In the front row, his wife Cristina, actress and model, shook her head in mute exasperation at the prosecutor's charges.

The long-delayed trial of fallen Auto Magnate John Zachary De Lorean, 59, finally opened last week in the U.S. court house in Los Angeles, 18 months after his dramatic arrest in that city in a Sheraton Hotel room. He is charged with conspiring to distribute $24 million worth of smuggled cocaine. The evidence: five hours of videotapes and 48 audio recordings made by a paid informant and by undercover agents from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

In his opening statement, Weitzman declared that federal agents had ruthlessly taken advantage of De Lorean's financial woes to entrap him in an operation the lawyer likened to the movie The Sting. De Lorean, he claimed, had been "framed," then threatened by FBI Informant James Hoffman, a convicted cocaine dealer and admitted perjurer. "John De Lorean was sucked into this," Weitzman said over and over again. The videotapes, he said, were "produced, choreographed and directed to make De Lorean look guilty."

The prosecution maintained that De Lorean's "driving desire to succeed" and his auto company's desperate straits had led him into the narcotics deal. On the trial's second day, the prosecution showed a videotape of an undercover FBI agent posing as a banker explaining to De Lorean how money could be "laundered." Off camera, De Lorean eagerly interjected, "It looks like a good opportunity." De Lorean, the prosecution argued, "was caught in the act of being himself."

As the trial opened, De Lorean's financial practices were being subjected to even closer scrutiny in Detroit, where he once worked as general manager of General Motors' Chevrolet division. A federal bankruptcy judge ruled against his claim to $975,000 in assets from his insolvent De Lorean Motor Co. A federal grand jury there is reportedly investigating allegations of criminal fraud. The charges against De Lorean stem from the creditors' claims of more than $120 million against the car company. A major charge: that the ex-automaker siphoned off $8.5 million of company money through a Swiss bank into his personal account in the U.S. De Lorean will not be obliged to testify before the grand jury until his trial in Los Angeles is over, which might not be until June.

The creditors have already tied up De Lorean's assets, including a 430-acre New Jersey estate worth $4 million and a 20-room Manhattan apartment, also worth $4 million. They sued again last week to prevent De Lorean from selling or transferring his 48-acre California estate, valued at $4 million. Without that money, said his lawyers, De Lorean was "penniless." Said Weitzman of his once extravagant client: "He has been brought to his knees."

--ByAlessandra Stanley.

Reported by Russell Leavitt/Los Angeles and Paul A. Witteman/Detroit

With reporting by Russell Leavitt, Paul A. Witteman