Newsday from New York, New York • 63

a jjj i i i 1 1 I 1 ft ft 4 t4ttft4e 4 1 ft ft I 030 recas ggynctmro DOW GOLD DOLLAR SMART MONEY DEBT PLAN rw irr'X' 5h Bilzerian Quits Singer Convicted raider also sued by SEC for $31 million By John Riley Corporate raider Paul Bilzerian yesterday resigned as chairman of defense contractor Singer Co. in the wake of his conviction last month of nine securities-related felonies and new civil charges of crooked dealings in his 1988 takeover of Singer. A spokesman for Tampa, Fla. -based Singer declined to explain the resignation and Bilzerian was not available for comment. But a source dose to the situation said Bilzerians conviction had raised concern at Singer about its continued ability to get defense contracts, and Bilzerian himself needed time to deal with mounting legal problems.

Those difficulties mounted further just prior to the late afternoon resignation announcement when the Securities and Exchange Commission filed a suit seeking to recover more than $31 million in illegal profits from Bilzerian for numerous and serious securities 't fc 5 Words Fail Informer Jefferies By David Heniy When it came time for fallen Btock trader Boyd Jefferies to make the sales pitch of his life yesterday morning, he couldnt find his voice. Sitting stiffly at the conference table in the chambers of the federal judge who is to sentence him for up to 10 years for securities felonies, Jefferies moved his lips but made no sound when District Judge Morris Lasker asked him if he had anything to say. The man who challenged the New York Stock Exchange by trading multi million-dollar blocks of stock over the phone in seconds, was now freezing in the clutch. Lasker, arrayed casually in shirt and tie, gently encouraged the 58-year-old Jefferies to relax. But even in Laskers chambers, softened by walls of books and a gentle breeze coming through an open window, Jefferies sat sweating through another step of a drama far removed from the institutional trading desk in Los Angeles where he used to spend 16 hours a day.

US. attorney Benito Romano, four assistant U.S. attorneys, Jefferies probation officer, his defense lawyers and his wife, Sharon, also sat around the table while law clerks and a news reporter looked on. The same crowd will gather next Thursday in Laskers courtroom where Jefferies will stand before the bench as the robed judge hands down his sentence. Jefferies pleaded guilty in April, 1987, to two counts of securities fraud as part of a bargain with prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

He has said he helped Please see JEFFERIES on Page 54 AP Photo Paul Bilzerian leaves federal courthouse in Manhattan during his securities trial in May. violations. Hie SEC suit said Bilzerian lied about the existence of secret investors and secretly accumulated stock in unsuccessful takeover forays involving Cluett Peabody Hammermill Paper Armco Inc. and H.H. Robertson Co.

charges at the core of the criminal conviction. But it also induded similar, new allegations involving Pay Pak Stores, Singer and Fortune Financial Group. And, riting Bilzerians construction of a 10-million mansion in Tampa that could be exempt from seizure under Florida law and reports that he has told associates he is hiding money abroad, the SEC sought an expedited inquiry into his finances. Filmrian lawyer Arthur Mathews denied the new charges and said the mustachioed 39-year-old Vietnam veteran expects to be vindicated." As for hiding assets, Mathews said, his contention is that he denies that. In a related development yesterday, the SEC announced that' Youngstown, Ohio, shopping-center magnate Edward J.

DeBartolo Sr. had ended a long out-of-court legal struggle over his role as a Bilzerian secret investor by agreeing to pay back $2.7 million in profits from backing the Cluett and Hammermill forays. He admitted no wrongdoing. Bilzerians resignation in which he also stepped down as a member of the board and chief executive officer at Singer comes at the end of a tumultuous 18 months since the raider took control of the one-time sewing machine company. After getting control, he Bold off eight of the companys 12 divisions, imposed layoffs and moved the companys headquarters from Stamford, to Tampa.

In shrinking the company, Bilzerian earned the enmity of employees who contend in a lawsuit that he is threatening the solvency of Singers pension plan. He paid himself a reported salary of $600,000 in 1988. Bilzerians criminal sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 16. He faces up to $2.2 million in fines and 45 years in jail.

Bilzerian is appealing. After 140 Years, Lawyers on the Move Sterling Equities, Gerald D. Hines and Prudenuu The new tower wiii be in keeping with the post offices limestone and will have a satellite dish on the roof to link the law firm to its offices in Paris, London, Tokyo and Washington, D.C. The 7-story post office will be renovated and the exterior restored. The legal field has been the fourth Please see M'iHiN'dinVage 54 I modern space for rapidly expanding staffs and elaborate computer and communications equipment.

Davis Polk, whose Manhattan staff has nearly doubled in the past 10 years to almost 1,000 people, including more than 380 lawyers, will take 450,000 square feet half the buildings total By Harry Berkowitz In the biggest leasing deal this year, the law firm Davis Polk Wardwell announced yesterday that, after 140 years downtown, it is moving to a new, 40-story office tower to be built over the Grand Central Post Office on Lexington Avenue. Hie announcement is the latest in a wave of law firms switching buildings. enable us to accommodate future growth of the firm well into the 21st Century, said Henry King; managing partner of the law firm. Most of Davis. Polks staff is now at One Chase Manhattan Plaza, with some administrative staff at 14 Wall St.

and some lawyers at 499 Park Ave. The new building, at 450 Lexington is being designed by' architect David Childs of SkidippreOwings Merrill and deveMAtBLVAiint venture that when the office tower is completed in March, 1992. It has an option for especially from downtown Manhattan other 225.000 squarajfertV -V. to Midtown, as they seek big blocks of' Ouroptions MA4flse will.