Takeover speculator and Singer Co. Chairman Paul...

Takeover speculator and Singer Co. Chairman Paul A. Bilzerian, indicted last month on 12 counts of fraud, pleaded not guilty in a U.S. court in New York and said that he hopes to clear his name and resume hunting for companies to buy. He was freed on a $500,000 personal recognizance bond pending trial, scheduled for May 1 before U.S. District Judge Robert J. Ward. The trial is expected to last six to eight weeks. Bilzerian was indicted Dec. 21 by a federal grand jury on a dozen felony counts linked to four failed takeover situations in 1985 and ’86. The charges are part of a network of securities fraud prosecutions tracing indirectly back to the Ivan F. Boesky insider trading scandal that broke more than two years ago.