Celebrity lawyer Dreier stays free on bond

NEW YORK, May 12 (UPI) -- Celebrity attorney Marc Dreier can remain free on bail after pleading guilty to bilking clients out of $700 million, a New York judge says.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff ruled Monday Dreier could remain in his luxury Manhattan condominium until his July 13 sentencing hearing even though he said he felt "repugnance" in having to follow the law in the case, The New York Post reported.

"We rarely encounter a less appealing beneficiary of bail," Rakoff said, allowing the attorney to stay out jail on $10 million bond.

It's unfair for Dreier to "continue to live rent free in a spectacular apartment bought with his victims' money," prosecutor Jonathan Streeter argued, the Post reported, but defense attorneys said the lawyer, who has been sued by such former clients as Bill Cosby, Tim Burton and Justin Timberlake, is now so broke he could no longer flee.

The newspaper said Dreier could face as many as 145 years in prison when he is sentenced.