my name is giovanni destefano. i'm a lawyer, best known as the divot devils advocate. i have defended the indefensible, from salem hussein to charles manson. clients that i deal with you don't want to good, person they want a person who they believe has gotten away with something. if i committed anything that the media had alleged drug, i would not be a free man. am i going to be condemned and convicted? on a television program? ♪ ♪ ♪ >> devil's advocate, mr. murder, call him what you will -- the who's who of the criminal world. >> giovanni destefano is one of the attorneys representing saddam hussein. mr. de stefano, good morning to you. >> good morning. >> >> -- committed the most serious of criminal offenses. you know, i don't personally know what. do you believe that? i really don't care. i don't live in a fantasy land. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> the legal world of london is a bit of a village really. very elitist. the judges and lawyers come from the same chambers. they've been school together. they will tell latin jokes among themselves. and along came this very unusual lawyer. with a love of tv cameras and seeing himself on the screen. >> one, two, three. giovanni stefano. giovanni di stefano. >> the first time i came across giovanni di stefano, he was fussing around in the corridors. no time for us reporters. he was a complete and utter outsider. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i had heard of giovanni di stefano through the grapevine. and to start with everybody just thought he was slightly a bit of an odd character. >> i had been introduced to him, yeah, we could do something together. he had that slightly manic way about him. he made himself big enough by being so energetic. >> in the year 2001, i began my legal precedent. [speaking foreign language] but what really launched me, more than anything else was the case of john palmer, goldfinger. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> while the britain's richest businessmen in jail for eight years for master mining -- a 13 million pound time in ten or wave -- >> john palmer, nicknamed goldfinger first came to notoriety after being acquitted from the robbery in the 80s. he moved to january where he and his associates she did have thousands of holiday makers into paying deposits on dream flats which often did not exist. >> he was britain's wealthiest prisoner, but now a huge chunk of john palmer's fortune has been confiscated by the judges order. >> giovanni said and we need to have a chat. we sat down and he said look, i've got this john palmer case. >> how giovanni came to represent john palmer is best known to him. >> in 1995, i married my wife. we went on a honeymoon. too tenerife. she is an extremely attractive woman. and mister jon palmer bought her breakfast and send her flowers. move now forward to 2001. my wife reads in the newspaper that mr. palmer was convicted. i wrote a letter. i am contacted by his advisor who said mr. palmer would like you to help him. >> and action! ♪ ♪ ♪ >> giovanni spent a considerable amount of time -- researching this confiscation power. >> he was much more ready to use a legal loophole, where a seasoned practitioner might say well i can see it, but i don't think it has bearings. when he got -- this point, he was saying, it's a quite point. and he's very enthusiastic about it. >> this is something that the british police have in common with the european counterparts on targeting people who they believe and they think should be prosecuted, because the jury has found otherwise another matters. i think that's wrong. >> he was holding a circus like performance outside of court. appalling behavior in the eyes of the legal establishment. >> the persecution, not a prosecution. >> the john palmer case, giovanni came up with what was clearly a flaw in the system. the court had almost no option but to allow the appeal, because it was wrong. >> today, after a lengthy legal battle, a judge ruled the courts has made a series of blunders, and it's a result -- >> giuliani got a 33 million confiscation -- order to set aside for a notorious criminal. that is a significant feather in your cap in the criminal fraternity. >> but, this cut off the nose of judges in the legal establishment. who is this man? where does he come from? >> i was born in a small village called petrella tifernina. [speaking foreign language] >> i am not the son of a general or of a lawyer or an accountant. i am from -- >> [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] >> [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] (bell tolls) [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] (bell tolls) [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] ♪ ♪ ♪ [speaking foreign language] >> one of britain's most controversial lawyers came to the village. it was the six-year-old son of italian immigrants. >> the house flat that we moved into with my parents. were allocated a council house. we italians and foreigners were not really -- we were seriously discriminated. we were a hated race. >> he's come a long way, not least today which began for giovanni di stefano, making his other appearance of the court of appeal. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> one of britain's richest businessmen was found guilty of the manslaughter for his business associates. the property tycoon, nicholas van hoogstraten hired two hitmen to take revenge against -- muhammad, who was stabbed and shot in his south london home. >> what motive are supposed to have had, before this bumped off? nobody does. because it is just bullshit. he owes me money? i'm gonna bump him? it's ridiculous. you don't bump people or chop their arm off or chop their fingers off. because they're gonna pay you. >> nicholas van hoogstraten was robust of the rogue criminal's. he treated his tenants -- >> back in those days -- i was the richest and biggest landlord. i still got all the necessary gang connections. there's no secret about that. >> his former girlfriend was one of the witnesses who backed out of testifying against him. but despite this, today the jury decided there was enough evidence to convict him of manslaughter. >> ten years. he got a ten year sentence. they made a big show out of it. we've got this bastard, at last. >> nicholas van hoogstraten was convicted. he immediately wants to appeal. but his lawyer said he had a time, wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. and eventually, along came giovanni di stefano. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i got a call. nicholas van hoogstraten would like you to represent him. i thought it was a joke. >> nicholas van hoogstraten, an unusual name -- of dutch origin. >> this was my hero! >> the self made millionaire. and his 21 years old. >> the man i looked up to! the peasant boy made good. and i said, well, i will see what i can do. >> he categorically insists he had no part to play whatsoever in the brutal murder of mr. -- >> di stefano is going through the book to see if he could find any way around -- what seemed to be fairly multi-tight evidence. he realized that the two hunch men were convicted under conspiracy to murder. but nicholas van hoogstraten was only convicted of manslaughter. there isn't in english law, a charge of conspiracy to manslaughter. and di stefano did exploit the law. brilliantly. >> the appeal had been successful -- and his conviction washed. >> i should never have been tried with these two muppets anyway, these other two guys. i should have never been in the same court with them. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> looking relieved, nicholas van hoogstraten left court this afternoon a free man. >> the two trials in the palmer case completely transformed di stefano's standing. >> i started as a peasant boy from a small village in italy. >> and you are worth, 40, 50 million? >> it's a little bit of -- it took off completely. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i'm flying. you would want me on your side if you was in trouble. >> the popstar producer and broadcaster -- a child sex abuser. and totally absolutely 100% innocent of the convictions. >> and my lawyer giovanni di stefano guarantees me that the conviction will come under appeal. >> giovanni di stefano had no moral scruples at all. morality never came into his equation. giovanni wanted to take on the impossible. >> he has no chance of winning it, has he? >> well, it would be wrong, simply because if his name was dr. harold shipment. he should not when his appeal. >> as motivation was to put two fingers on the legal establishment. he got a huge get from the fact that he was taken this out of high and mighty people. >> we had a video conference. he confirmed that he was not a participant in the great train robbery on the 8th of august, 1963. in short, it was not him. >> unquestionably, he was in love with the media, because it fed his ego. h the media, because i fed hi >> hey, hey, hey! ♪ ♪ ♪ i did not kill veronica wherein, i had nothing to do with this. >> i had a place in monaco. a place in malbay, a place in palma di mallorco, a place in rome. >> money is unquestionably a factor for giovanni, i suspect no amount would have ever been enough. >> but it wasn't his soul driving factor. >> anyone who knows me knows that i do collect colorful friends. back in 2002, i was a single mother. i had no money. this father of my child was -- being adifficult about payinf child maintenance. so we had to go through the court. i lost the case. i ended up being a newspapers. mostly because of my background in hollywood. lived with elizabeth hurley, i dated kevin costner. now i was living in temporary accommodation above a chicken shop. i was broke and had lost everything at that point. i got a phone call from my girlfriend who was at the beach club. darling, i've just read your story in the daily mail. it's awful. this is terrible. you've lost your case. and i think my friend can help you. she passes the phone over to giovanni di stefano, and i just get this barrage of, hello. i cant believe what the fuck you went through >> the court is completely fructify. can corrupted. >> i had never heard language like that before in my life. >> it's completely left up. >> but giovanni had absolutely read the article and had came to the conclusion that i faced a gross injustice. i was rock-bottom. i certainly have a lawyer in monte carlo saying he will pay for my legal costs. trying to win my right to appeal. >> shall i tell you why i take these small cases? because when you are flying so high, sometimes you have got to come back down to earth. >> giovanni invited me to meet at the ritz. all the waiters knew him. he had a beautiful table there. he loved glamour and opulence. everything was going great. i was really positive about where he was taking the case. we were walking out of the ritz, and my handbag just snapped. giovanni said, this is terrible. he grabbed me by the arm, literally by the arm. he dragged me out of the ritz. he said we are going to -- street. whatever i looked at, he would buy. the sales lady -- it was a pretty women moment. we're gonna get a lot of money here. in about ten minutes he spent about several thousand pounds on me. i said, by buying me the handbag, are you expecting me to go back to the ritz and go upstairs this time? he just looked at me and said very confidently, it would be too easy. i just -- i really should have slapped him at that point. that was disgusting. but he had found discrepancies with the filing and he won the right to appeal. i'd say, i know you are a sneaky bastard, but i need you to be a sneaky bastard. i need you to be the devil for me, because in order to win any case in court i actually do need the devil. but i also think giovanni might have needed me as well. giovanni did enjoy the starlight. i think he thought he could pick up some of the glamour. when you have to think back into the early days, hollywood was his number one objective. i had all the stories, heard the stories he was trying to buy mgm studios. the stories he was trying to buy mgm studios. s this nightmare? 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[speaking foreign language] >> i joined forces with him, and florio fiore. here are three times that have come into the united states and our buying mbn. >> mr. destefano, and his wife tanya -- and extravagant lifestyle in the beverly hills mansion. swimming pools, rolls royce, stretch limo. >> skeptics abound, where all the money eventually came, from will likely be one of hollywood's ongoing mysteries. people thought we got the money from the mafia, from the vatican, or it was drug money. it was not. we just borrowed it from the bank. [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] >> a sad ending, of course. it was inevitable that we would lose control. things didn't go to good for mr. giancarlo parretti and mr. fury knee. >> [speaking foreign language] >> two in jail. to our bankrupt. he got away with her and $49 million. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> but received a threat from an ex cia agent. listen, giovanni, you created a massive scandal. you should get the hell after that. just lose yourself. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i thought, where is the best place to go when people aren't going to come and look for you? a war zone. who is gonna come looking for me over there? ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> and here was a pure coincidence. absolute golden opportunity for me. our pact was a true and loyal one. from back in london when he was working in a hotel -- and we started doing business. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] ♪ ♪ ♪ >> western governments are arresting a warlord. the most prominent incident in of ethnic cleansing ethnic cleansing in croatia and bosnia, that led tens of thousands of people -- and hundreds of thousands of people as refugees. >> he was portrayed as a wanted man. a criminal. i was his lawyer. >> [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] >> one of the most notorious war lords. shot and that by and assassin tonight. he died of his wounds in hospital in belgrade -- head of the feared -- >> i had left yugoslavia in november 1999. and thanks to that, probably, my life was saved. >> did you knew him when he was a murder and a bank robber in europe? or did you only know him when he was practicing genocide, as a warlord? >> we should be very careful what we make -- first of all, he is no longer with us. he is dead. secondly -- well, secondly, he has in children. so, that's something that we need to have an element of respect for. >> and thirdly, he butchered people in vukevar hospital, didn't he? >> i did not believe that there was sufficient admissible evidence to provide a conviction for the crimes that he was accused of. now, you don't know the crimes are, because it's -- and only i know. >> instead, why are you attracted to these pretty notorious crimes? >> i try to do everything within the spirit and the words of the law. and i'm being successful and that. you might not a great, but that's a matter for you, i really don't care. >> what makes giovanni take? i think giovanni just wants to live a big life. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> he wasn't frightened of living in war zones. they called me and i can hear the phone line and it was a bit odd. he said, where on earth are you? >> he said, i'm in iraq. i'm representing saddam hussein. i'm representing sadda hussein. hussein. with nicorette. which can lead to something big. start stopping with nicorette. ♪ limu emu ♪ and doug. 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[speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] ♪ ♪ ♪ >> i've always had an inclusive mind. so, when i was 22 years of age, i joined the police force. i think it was kind of why i wanted to do, [inaudible] helping others as i could. in my 30 years of police service, i served in various emergency. i investigated robberies, kidnappings, drugs. but there was one case that was very different from anything that i had ever experienced. may 2006, i was handed a file that contained an allegation of fraud against giovanni di stefano. the complaint was coming from a lady called paula gregory date. so, i went to see her, sat down with her, and went through the story. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> 2003, my husband, paul busch, was found guilty of murder. while in prison, he has seen a documentary about giovanni di stefano. >> >> her husband wanted to to appeal against his conviction, and he thought, well, this is the amount for me. this is the man who's gonna help me with my appeal process. >> he saw the opportunity -- he wanted to bring giovanni for appealing -- and he did. 100,000 pounds -- >> he gathered money from family and friends. she put her life savings into there as well. the money was given to di stefano. >> despite the promise and made by di stefano, i'm not aware that any application ever want to head. >> she was accusing giovanni di stefano of stealing the money. >> i thought there was a degree of, i guess frustration on her part. he was a very competent lawyer, and she was concerned that he wouldn't be too difficult to deal with, to contentious. but it's his nature to brush into the carpet, they were requests that would definitely -- >> all aggressively gave a documentary testimony on tv. for me, personally, it was crucial when i saw it. giovanni di stefano, opening remarks, something along the lines, i sold five murders. i should be known as mr. murder. >> when i watched that documentary, i thought somebody absolutely loving the line. >> the fact that i am in mixed with criminals, doesn't make me one. i'm their lawyer. >> simply, quote for a quote. >> he looked like a guilty thing. it's the best opportunity as a lawyer to have no clients. >> because he was torturing himself to be somebody who is taking on the legal system of the country. >> you would expect him a lawyer, supposed to go to a city office, running around in his suit, and speaking. -- >> he was claiming to represent some of the most high-profile criminals that we had in the uk at that time. >> we want! we won! >> he represented nicholas van hoogstraten. supposedly the richest man in penal history -- >> but when i looked into these claims, things became far, far more complicated. >> did giovanni ever represent me? well, absolutely not. giovanni never represented me in any capacity at anytime. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> he was probably connected with this firm that we're acting for me at the time. but certainly, did not have any instructions for me. >> he anticipates and expect that justice will prevail, and he will be released. >> i would guess that giovanni she so my case because of its high profile, as an opportunity for him to gain more publicity. remember, there wasn't anything to do about it. i was still in custody. >> the appeal against conviction for nicholas hooks ron has been successful, and his conviction washed. >> was he allowed to practice here? i don't think it was legally allowed to practice law, was he? in this country? >> people are asking me, to stefano's ability, which was his legal status? very early on, he was asked, was a a qualified lawyer? >> he's probably one of the wealthiest conman behind bars. by the vast majority of the time share victims has yet to receive a penny in compensation. >> i went to the court of appeal for a hearing on behalf of john goldfinger palmer. >> this persecution, in my view -- >> giovanni was in court. >> on the first day, no justice rose. extremely serious judge. stopped immediately, and said, who is that gentlemen? >> i said, well, he is giovanni destefano, why? >> this man has been filing legal documents related to his cause. that should only be signed by counsel and by lawyers with rights of order, ordinance in this country. now this was a shake yourself awake moment. >> giovanni's position was, i am a practicing attorney from italy. and i have the right to practice in the uk. >> he directed 7749, allowing all foreign lawyers the right to practice in each other's jurisdictions. >> the judges did not in any way make it clear to me that they were seized of any evidence to suggest he was not a practicing lawyer. they were just acting on rumor, suspicion, about whether or whether or not he was qualified. >> the loss state, casting some doubt about whether you are entitled, because you haven't proved that you are a qualified lawyer. >> i mean, are you qualified in the law? do you have a seal on it? >> do allege to be a lawyer, if you do, say so on camera. >> the courts hated him. and as soon as there were these questions about whether he was actually qualified as a lawyer or not, they seized upon that. >> let's not go anymore than that, because i'm not going to follow that line, that state desperately wanted to go. >> giovanni was -- [inaudible] after a president imposing, and working with the kind of people he was working with, it was inevitably going to leave to a suspicion that it was being monitored. >> this is exactly what the state has wanted of me. >> it was a prospect that this telephone was being bogged. or maybe others that might have been informing on whatever it was doing. he was a target. >> the more i looked into him, . >> no more and more i was convinced that this was not your average court case. i was hoping that the whole politics and espionage -- completely out of the blue. telephone rings. >> hi, can i speak to mr. waters please? 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