Brunei's flamboyant Prince Jefri Bolkiah (above) told his side of a dispute with some former lawyers to a court on Thursday, a star witness in a multi-million-dollar money fight with a royal pedigree and a salacious tangent. --PHOTO: AP
NEW YORK - BRUNEI'S flamboyant Prince Jefri Bolkiah told his side of a dispute with some former lawyers to a court on Thursday, a star witness in a multi-million-dollar money fight with a royal pedigree and a salacious tangent.
Prince Jefri testified matter-of-factly in a Manhattan courtroom, attentive but terse during hours of questioning about his business arrangements with ex-attorneys Thomas and Faith Zaman Derbyshire.
The prince says the married couple stole about US$7 million (S$9 million) from him by doing everything from siphoning off proceeds from a real estate sale to charging his corporate credit cards for personal expenses. The Derbyshires say they had his permission for everything they did, and he owes them US$12 million or more in legal fees.
The judge has made it sternly clear that the trial won't delve too deeply into the doings of the so-called 'playboy prince' - and lawyers can't even mention some erotic statues that have turned the case into a tabloid sensation. Still, Prince Jefri's testimony offered glimpses of life as a royal and member of one of the world's richest families, though at times a prodigal son.
Prince Jefri acknowledged that he would summon the Derbyshires from London to, say, Singapore for a brief meeting and held other sessions in Lugano, Switzerland, and Paris.
His lawyers helped run a stable of properties, including the swanky New York Palace hotel and the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles, for a royal who said he's accustomed to being called 'boss'. 'Probably because (employees) don't want to call me Prince Jefri all the time,' he said. -- AP
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