Reuters: Oddly Enough: "Devil's Advocate" convicted in London of being fake lawyer

Reuters: Oddly Enough Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. // via fulltextrssfeed.com

"Devil's Advocate" convicted in London of being fake lawyer Mar 27th 2013, 17:30 Tweet Share this Email Print Related News Zimbabwe court releases leading rights lawyer on $500 bail Mon, Mar 25 2013 Analysis & Opinion SCOTUS to class action bar: You can't stipulate out of federal court How we left Iraq Related Topics World » Oddly Enough » Lifestyle » Italy » Iraq » Lawyer Giovanni di Stefano arrives at Southwark Crown Court in London January 28, 2013. Credit: Reuters/Neil Hall LONDON | Wed Mar 27, 2013 1:30pm EDT LONDON (Reuters) - An Italian man known as the "Devil's Advocate" who said he provided legal representation to the likes of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, was not a genuine lawyer but a fraudster, a jury at a London court ruled on Wednesday. Giovanni Di Stefano, 57, conned clients out of large sums of money by setting himself up as a lawyer when he had no legal qualifications and was not registered to work as a lawyer in Italy or Britain. During the trial, the court heard Di Stefano had links to Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden, late Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam. The court was shown a BBC documentary from 2004 in which he described Saddam as a "nice guy" and boasted of being asked to defend a number of notorious British killers such as Harold Shipman, the family doctor who murdered about 250 patients. Prosecuting lawyer David Aaronberg said he had gained a reputation which brought him "the fame, or the notoriety, that he enjoys". "He was a man who was willing to provide legal services to clients whose cases others considered unwinnable or too difficult to defend," Aaronberg said. Di Stefano was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of 25 offences of deception, fraud, money laundering and forgery allegedly committed between 2004 and 2012, British news agency the Press Association reported. Di Stefano, who was born in the small town of Petrella Tifernina in central Italy but moved to Britain as a boy, will be sentenced on Thursday. (Reporting by Michael Holden; Editing by Pravin Char) Tweet this Link this Share this Digg this Email Reprints We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/ Comments (0) Be the first to comment on reuters.com. Add yours using the box above.

You are receiving this email because you subscribed to this feed at blogtrottr.com. If you no longer wish to receive these emails, you can unsubscribe from this feed, or manage all your subscriptions