F. Lee Bailey Faces Jail If Stock Not Returned

Attorney F. Lee Bailey was found in contempt of court Saturday and ordered to turn over $21 million in stock from a former client who awaits sentencing in a drug conspiracy - or go to jail.

If Bailey doesn’t comply by the end of the month, he faces a six-month jail sentence, U.S. District Judge Maurice Paul said.

Bailey, 62, claims the stock is payment for legal services for representing Claude Duboc, a French-American arrested in Hong Kong in 1994 as part of a conspiracy to import tons of hashish and marijuana into the United States and Canada.

Duboc, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to import drugs and laundering the proceeds, agreed in May to testify for the government and forfeit $200 million in cash, bank accounts, real estate and other assets.

Bailey was entrusted with some of the money to maintain Duboc’s other assets, prosecutors said.

Bailey “has defied the order of this court,” U.S. Attorney David McGee said. “I suggest, Your Honor, that you put Mr. F. Lee Bailey in jail in this district until he produces to this court the money he has stolen from the people of the United States.”

Bailey’s attorney, Roger Zuckerman, argued there was no physical evidence documenting the stock transaction with the government.

In question are 602,000 shares of Biochem Pharma Inc., a Canadian pharmaceutical company, that Bailey says were given to him by the government to offset his fees and expenses in representing Duboc.

The shares were worth $6 million when transferred to Bailey in May 1994, and since then have increased in value.