Faneuil Scraped Off Floor; Ann Turns On Waterworks

Flinty judge moved to tears as Stewart amanuensis weeps bitterly

Elizabeth Koch | February 9, 2004

(Page 3 of 4)

"Are you not interested in this line of questioning, Mr. Faneuil?" Quite the understatement—Faneuil is fidgeting and looking rather green. Jury looks at him warily, a few with some pity.

The dynamic here feels like that of a chess game: Morvillo moves, Faneuil ponders for a substantial period of time, makes his move, Morvillo pounces—both are clearly thinking four steps ahead. Apfel's tactic, on the other hand, was to lob tennis balls at Faneuil's head and swat haphazardly at Faneuil's perfect returns.

When Morvillo asks him about his plea bargain, about why it took so long for Faneuil to come forward to the SEC, he essentially blames it on Gutman. "He told me to not lie but to stick to my story."

Morvillo: "So in March during your Merrill Lynch interviews, you were dividing up the lies."

Faneuil: "Well, I tried to follow Gutman's advice. I hid the reasons behind the Stewart sale but did not repeat Peter's $60 stop-loss story."

Morvillo: "So you told old lies but didn't introduce any new ones."

"Sure," he finally confesses. "Gutman told me ML had a deal with the SEC to stop going after Martha if they turned over the Waksals."

Morvillo, "...So you inferred that they'd drop the case and you'd get away with your lies."

"Yes"

Morvillo asks Faneuil a series of questions on why he didn't ever tell anyone at ML about his bad feeling about the insider trades. "I felt ML suspected something but didn't really want to know what was going on, mostly based off the fact that Judy and Peter were offering me rewards."

"So you believe Judy was bribing you?"

Now he won't say. Jury looks confused at best.

Finally Morvillo asks Faneuil if he's aware that the crimes he committed are felonies—conspiracy, lying to the SEC, obstructing justice, drug use, and so on. "I count five or six crimes that are being washed away because of your testimony,"

Seymour objects, Cedarbaum overrules.

Morvillo: "It is fair to say that in place of all these crimes, you have pleaded guilty to a single misdemeaner charge?"