A turn out one of the dirtiest lawyers in the business isn’t even in the business – and that’s part of the problem. “The Devil’s Advocate,” Giovanni Di Stefano became famous for taking on cases nobody else would want to touch, such as deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, former Iraqi Vice President Tariq Aziz, and train robber Ronnie Bigg’s. He’s also worked with road rage killer Kenneth Noye and timeshare fraudster John “Goldfinger.” Problem is, Di Stefano isn’t qualified to be a lawyer, neither in the UK or in Italy – or presumably anywhere else.

Though he managed to win some of his cases, he was unqualified to do so, he isn’t a lawyer. That is why Judge Alistair McCreath sentenced him to 14 years in jail for a potpourri of charges clustered around such fraudulent activity.

“I recognize that you did not actively seek out these whom you defrauded. They came to you. You did not approach them but there is more than one kind of predator,” said the judge.



“Some predators hunt down their victims, others lie in wait for them.

“You’re victims in this case were all desperate people and people who, because of their desperation, were vulnerable.”

It’s about more than the money involved, “it is also about something different and great – it is the real distress you caused to so many people.” He means by bolstering hopes only for them to shatter to the ground. “You had no regard for them nor for their anguish. Your only concern was to line your own pockets.”

His links to Robert Mugabe, Osama bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, and his “friendship” with daughter of Slobodan Milosevic also came up during the trial – his connections were uniquely colorful and wide-ranging. And he did manage to overturn a manslaughter conviction against Nicholas van Hoogstraten in 2002 and get John “Goldfinger” Palmer out of prison on a technicality.