Aug 4, 2008 11:01 pm US/Pacific
D.A.: Killer Used Estranged Husband's Credit Card
LOS ANGELES
A federal prosecutor said Monday that a credit card belonging to James Michael Fayed was used to rent the car of his estranged wife's killer's car.
Pamela Goudie Fayed was stabbed to death last week on the third floor of a Century City parking garage.
James Michael Fayed, 45, who is facing a federal charge related to the
international gold trading company he owned with his late wife, was granted $500,000 bail at his initial appearance at U.S. District Court in downtown Los Angeles Monday.
However, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ralph Zarefsky stayed his decision until
4:30 p.m. Wednesday to give prosecutors time to appeal.
James Fayed has not been charged with his wife's murder, although he is a prime suspect in that case and could face the death penalty if charged.
The FBI arrested Fayed Friday night at the family home near Moorpark, in
a rural section of Ventura County, on a federal charge related to the
international gold trading company he co-owned with Pamela, 44.
At James Fayed's court hearing today, Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Aveis said surveillance cameras taped his wife's killer leave a car whose license plate matched a vehicle that had been rented using her husband's credit card.
The credit card was later found in James Fayed's wallet during a search,
Aveis said.
Pamela Fayed reportedly told a close friend that her husband once told her "I could have you killed and my hands would be clean," Aveis said.
Pamela Fayed, the co-owner of Goldfinger Coin and Bullion Sales and an
associated Internet firm, E-Bullion, was murdered July 28 at about 6:35 p.m. after a meeting with her husband and their respective attorneys, Aveis said.
The killer was lying in wait for her and there was no evidence of an attempted carjacking, the prosecutor said.
Witnesses said the woman was repeatedly stabbed by a slender man in his 20s who fled in a sport utility vehicle as she screamed for help. She died a short time later at UCLA Medical Center.
The couple had been fighting over their jointly owned company, and the
police searched the family home last week. Another search turned up firearms, $3 million in gold bullion and $60,000 in cash, Aveis said. Aveis also alleged that cash had been buried on the Fayed estate, but none has yet been found.
James Fayed's attorney, Mark Werksman, said Aveis' information about Fayed's money dealings was "uncorroborated hearsay." The evidence that Aveis read into the court record was a report written by a rookie FBI agent who heard the information second- hand from LAPD detectives and other FBI agents.
There was no evidence James Fayed knew he was under a federal
investigation, Werksman said.
Court documents obtained by the Ventura County Star showed that Pamela Fayed had accused her husband, from whom she had separated and was divorcing, of violating federal currency trading laws.
Pamela Fayed said in her divorce papers that James Fayed had also failed to get their business its proper licenses and bonds, the Star reported.
The Star reported that James Fayed denied in court documents that such
licenses and bonds were required. In turn, he had accused Pamela Fayed of embezzlement as she diverted company assets to pay for the licenses and bonds.
As part of divorce proceedings, Pamela Fayed was seeking to have the family business treated as a separate entity because she feared her husband was trying to hide some of their assets, which she said amounted to about $12 million, plus gold and silver stashed in secret vaults, The Times reported.
She was killed the day before a court hearing that was to have addressed
those issues.
At that hearing, James Fayed was supposed to have turned over business
records that are at the core of the government's case against him, Aveis said.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
