Dec 12, 2006 7:43 pm US/Pacific
7th Defendant Admits Guilt In Pellicano Case
LOS ANGELES (CBS) ―
A seventh defendant pleaded guilty Tuesday in the wiretapping case involving sleuth-to-the-stars Anthony Pellicano, leaving the private investigator and four others charged in the case.
Daniel Nicherie, 46, entered into a plea deal with prosecutors in which he admitted one count of aiding and abetting wiretapping and also pleaded guilty to three counts related to a separate fraud case in which Pellicano is not charged.
Outside court, Nicherie's attorney, Kiana Sloan-Hillier, declined to reveal what sentence the plea bargain calls for her client to receive, but said it is "considerably less" than the 35-year statutory maximum for the charges.
Nicherie's guilty plea in the Pellicano case relates to wiretapped telephone conversations of Ami Shafrir, a man who prosecutors had alleged was the victim of an elaborate fraud by Nicherie.
Nicherie had been charged with bilking Shafrir and his wife, Sarit, out of about $40 million by taking control of their companies and draining the assets.
Pellicano, 62, remains jailed while awaiting trial on the wiretapping and racketeering charges. He allegedly used phone taps and other illegal methods to gather information on behalf of his clients, who included celebrities and other Hollywood names.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Dale Fischer postponed the trial for Pellicano and his co-defendants to late summer of next year.
Pellicano's four remaining co-defendants sought the delay so that their lawyers could have more time to review documents and recordings turned over by the government in advance of trial.
By the time of a Nov. 20 hearing, more than 150,000 pages of documents and 443 recordings had been turned over by the government, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Saunders said preparations are being made to turn over thousands of additional pages of documents in digital form.
Those who previously pleaded guilty in the case including "Die Hard" director John McTiernan and a former president of Hollywood Records, both of whom admitted hiring Pellicano to perform wiretaps.
In pleading guilty in the separate fraud case, Nicherie did not admit defrauding Ami and Sarit Shafrir out of $40 million. Instead, he admitted a money laundering count for transferring $109,000. He also pleaded guilty to a pension fraud count, and a wire fraud count for bilking another individual, Ezra Mileikowsky, out of $275,000.
Nicherie's guilty plea comes after months during which he represented himself in the case.
(© 2006 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
