By Shayna Jacobs
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Accused $59 million Ponzi schemer Kenneth Starr must stick with a public defender to fight his criminal charges if his assets don't become unfrozen soon, a judge said Wednesday.
U.S. District Court judge Shira Scheindlin said she would put an end to the delays in Starr's criminal case caused by his inability to pay for legal counsel and would appoint his Federal Defenders of New York lawyer to stay on for the duration of the case.
"The government agrees that things need to start moving," Assistant United States Attorney William Harrington said.
At a court conference Wednesday, Starr was represented by private counsel Flora Edwards, who said she would only stay on the case if he was able to pay her in the future.
Edwards said she was hired to submit a bail application for the alleged fraudster, who has been sitting in a federal jail since his May 28 arrest.
His family, although not his former Scores stripper wife, has footed the bill for her services thus far, Edwards told reporters.
Since his arrest, Starr has had various attorneys because has not been able to pay one since the Securities and Exchange Commission barred him in May from accessing his accounts as a fiscal monitor assesses his worth.
Edwards on Wednesday requested that Starr be released on bail as he fights securities and investment fraud, money laundering and other charges. She asked for a week to ten days to arrange a bail application.
"Most white collar defendants are released on bail under some reasonable set of conditions," she said outside the courtroom.
Prior to his arrest, Starr lived with his ex-stripper wife Diane Passage in a $7.5 million Upper East Side townhouse that was allegedly purchased with stolen money.
High-powered Washington attorney Abbe Lowell took up Starr's civil action brought by the SEC but said told reporters he had not yet been paid by the fallen money manger at the last scheduled conference.
Antoher SEC conference is schedueld for Thursday in Manhattan federal court.
