Opening Statements Given in Fraud Trial

Frank Boyd Cockrell II is more than a white-collar criminal who bilked investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, evaded taxes, and laundered money, a prosecutor said in opening statements Wednesday.

He is a man who hid his assets to avoid paying child support to his ex-wife, and used duped investors’ money to pay for his lavish lifestyle--including a chauffeur, a gardener, lingerie for his new wife, and a $3-million home in the Hollywood Hills, Deputy Dist. Atty. Mark Aveis said.

And when his elaborate facade of false businesses threatened to crumble, Aveis said, Cockrell tried to hire someone to blow up the Ventura County courthouse and all the evidence against him.

Judge Vincent J. O’Neill ruled earlier this month that the bombing evidence would be allowed into this trial because it shows consciousness of guilt in that Cockrell was allegedly trying to destroy the securities fraud evidence and keep his case from going to trial.

“This is a case about stocks, lies and audiotape,” Aveis began. “We will show that defendant Frank Cockrell lied for seven years about his finances . . . to obtain money from individuals and use it, the loss of which was $1.7 million.”

So began opening statements in the securities fraud trial that is one of the largest white-collar crime cases in county history.

Cockrell, 49, faces 24 counts, including charges of tax evasion, grand theft and money laundering.

He will face separate charges in Los Angeles County of attempted murder and solicitation to commit murder in the alleged bombing plot. That trial is scheduled to begin after this one ends.

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The fraud case, which could take two to three months, is being tried in Ventura County because several of the investors live there and because the money obtained from all the investors flowed through Ventura County bank accounts.

In his opening statements, defense attorney Ed Whipple rebutted some incidents and attempted to provide a motive for others.

He said Cockrell did not file his state tax returns for four years at the behest of his financial advisor.

He said many of Cockrell’s investors had sufficient experience to protect themselves and that they signed papers to that effect.

And he said that when Cockrell set up numerous corporations, his intent was not to bilk investors, but to build legitimate businesses.

Finally, Whipple said his client thought the Ventura County district attorney’s office was masterminding a conspiracy to kill him and destroy his businesses.

“Since 1991, my client has been of the opinion that he has been persecuted and conspired against by the district attorney’s office,” Whipple said. “And he believed a number of people, including his ex-wife, were part of that conspiracy.”

Whipple said that during the trial, Cockrell’s 17-year-old son, Russ, will take the stand. He is expected to testify that when he and his mother came to Ventura to research civil case files five years ago, they were called into the district attorney’s office.

Whipple said that at that time, when 12-year-old Russ defended his father, the “elderly looking, large man” threatened him and his father.

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“On the wall,” Whipple told the jury, “he finds a picture of Michael Bradbury.

“And [Russ] came to the conclusion that the man he has talked to, who has threatened him and Mr. Cockrell, is none other than Michael Bradbury himself.”

The bald and bespectacled Cockrell wore a well-cut pinstriped suit Wednesday. The silk handkerchief peeking out of his breast pocket matched his burgundy tie. He frequently rolled forward in his chair to scribble notes on a legal pad.

Cockrell was indicted two years ago by the Ventura County Grand Jury on charges of swindling investors in a bogus investment scheme. Investors thought they were buying stock in a company that sold surety bonds to minority building contractors involved with the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

But in September, the case took a surprising twist when an agent from the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms alleged that Cockrell had tried to hire him to destroy the courthouse with a truck bomb.

Cockrell has been in custody since his arrest in September.

Agent Charles M. Pratt said he posed as an anti-government militia member and met with Cockrell numerous times at a fast-food restaurant.

During those meetings, Cockrell allegedly paid Pratt $2,000 to kidnap, rob and kill a Sherman Oaks car dealer and his wife to help finance a larger campaign of terror.

But defense attorney Whipple said Wednesday that Cockrell knew he was talking to an agent and that he was being recorded.

Cockrell decided to use the agent as a conduit to share his side of the story with prosecutors and defense attorneys. But he had to spice it up with outlandish claims to “keep the guy interested,” Whipple said.

And that, Whipple said, is why Cockrell made his threats--not because he meant them.

“Here’s the situation,” he said. “You have two guys coming at each other over 20 conversations . . . . It’s like a conversation out of ‘Pulp Fiction.’ ”

On Tuesday, Cockrell’s co-defendant, Clayton Bromwell, entered a guilty plea on all five counts he was charged with, including grand theft securities fraud.

Grace West Cockrell, Cockrell’s latest and now-estranged wife, was named as a co-conspirator, but she jumped bail last January and headed for France, authorities said. There is a warrant out for her arrest.