LAUDERDALE LAWYER ACCUSED OF HELPING PLANT COCAINE IN BOCA WOMAN'S CAR

Federal authorities arrested a Fort Lauderdale attorney Saturday on charges
he helped coordinate a scheme to frame a Boca Raton businessman's ex-wife
by planting cocaine in her car.

Alexandre Lasnaud, 31, was enlisted last year by Gary Robert Gillman in the
former executive's bizarre attempt to keep his former spouse from gaining
custody of their two children, according to court documents released Monday.

Gillman had been raising his children until he was arrested in October for
offering $120,000 to a North Carolina man to kill his father and his
father's girlfriend so he could inherit the family business.

While in the Palm Beach County Jail awaiting trial, Gillman agreed to bail
out his cellmate and get him an attorney if the cellmate would break into
his ex-wife's garage and put cocaine inside her car, court documents said.
The cellmate then would tell police that Gillman's ex-wife was dealing
crack out of her Boca Raton home so she would get arrested, according to
court documents.

Gillman pleaded guilty in February to hiring the hitman and later plotting
to have his ex-wife put behind bars. He is awaiting sentencing on those
charges.

Lasnaud is accused of organizing the break-in with Gillman's former
cellmate and then having two men watch as the cellmate broke into the
garage to ensure the plan was carried out. While the former cellmate did
break into the garage in October, he never planted the cocaine that he was
paid to purchase, according to court records.

Prosecutors won't disclose when Lasnaud's name came up as being involved in
the custody scheme, but at some point, Gillman agreed to cooperate with FBI
agents and wore a body wiretap during a meeting with the lawyer.

During the Dec. 28 jailhouse meeting, Lasnaud told Gillman to lie if the
FBI questioned him about the plan and gave him a cover story, according to
court records.

In an indictment made public Monday, Lasnaud faces an obstruction of
justice charge and a count of conspiring to distribute cocaine. He faces a
maximum of 50 years in prison and a $250,000 fine if he is convicted of
both charges.

Florida Bar Association records show Lasnaud -- a graduate of St. Thomas
Law School in Miami -- has been a bar member since October 1997. He was
being held in the Broward County Jail on Monday night, awaiting a pretrial
release hearing this morning.

Prosecutors will ask today that Lasnaud be held without bail as he awaits
trial because he "has the ability to obtain French passports under
fictitious names," according to court records.

Lasnaud was born in France and has dual citizenship with France and the
United States, court records state.

If he were to flee, his extradition would be unlikely, according to
prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Terrence Thompson said Monday that the
investigation into the plot to frame Gillman's ex-wife is still ongoing and
the man who was going to plant the drugs is still under investigation.

Gillman's children, ages 2 and 6, are living with their grandfather -- the
man Gillman had plotted to kill, according to court records.

Gary Gillman wanted his father dead after a bitter schism developed between
them when the father accused the son of mismanaging the family business --
an international collections agency.

Gillman was caught after the supposed hitman went to federal authorities.