EX-LAWYER: TROUBLES A REPEAT FOR HOLDERMAN

'His problem was also what made him such a great president of the
university. When he's up, I don't think there's anybody like him. When he's
on the other end of it, he just crashes. ... It's a terrible thing.'

Jack Swerling | Columbia lawyer

A new spate of problems for former University of South Carolina President
James Holderman may be a sign of an old mental illness, an ex-prosecutor
and Holderman's former lawyer said Friday.

Holderman, 67, was charged Thursday with trying to launder $400,000 that an
undercover FBI agent told them was from illegal drug sales and trying to
help obtain fraudulent visas, authorities say. He was in custody Friday and
is set to appear in court Monday, the FBI said.

It's not the first time Holderman has faced criminal charges.

He resigned as university president in May 1990 under fire for extravagant
spending.

Facing prosecution by then-prosecutor Dick Harpootlian, Holderman pleaded
guilty to receiving extra compensation and no contest to state tax evasion
charges.

"It was my assessment, at that point, that this was somebody that was not
in touch with reality," Harpootlian said. "It would appear that that
continues, and it is sad. This is a guy who commanded respect and power in
South Carolina for a number of years."

Harpootlian said the man he prosecuted "was not repentant at all. His
attitude was: 'I can do whatever the hell I want to do.' ... I was
incredulous. He felt like the rules didn't apply."

Five years later, Columbia lawyer Jack Swerling defended Holderman on
federal bankruptcy fraud charges. Holderman pleaded guilty to eight counts
of hiding assets from creditors then lying about it. He spent nine months
in prison before being released in 1997.

Swerling said he's occasionally had contact with Holderman since then,
including a brief encounter about a year ago in Charleston.

Swerling said the new legal problems "kind of shocked" him. "I feel like a
lot of the things he's gotten himself involved in he just has no control
over," he said.

Swerling's 1996 defense relied on mental experts showing Holderman suffered
from manic depression.

"His problem was also what made him such a great president of the
university. When he's up, I don't think there's anybody like him," Swerling
said. "When he's on the other end of it, he just crashes. ... It's a
terrible thing."

People with that illness "could fall prey" to a sting more easily than
others, Swerling said.

An arrest affidavit says an undercover FBI agent and a cooperating witness
posed as Russian mafia members. In June in Miami, they asked Holderman to
help them get fake U.S. visas under aliases, according to the affidavit.

At the time, student visas were under greater scrutiny in response to the
Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Holderman agreed to obtain the visas and took $15,000 as a down payment,
FBI special agent Kevin Donovan said. Holderman had Rafael Diaz, a
38-year-old vice president at Brookhaven College in Farmers Branch, Texas,
use the school as a front to obtain student visas, Donovan said.

Holderman met Diaz in the 1980s when he saw him perform in a Dominican
musical group and offered him an $18,000 scholarship and internship at the
University of South Carolina.

The FBI agent said Diaz told the undercover officer that he would have to
come to Brookhaven only for a few days.

The undercover officer also told Holderman that he had $2 million he needed
to launder, according to the affidavit.

On Tuesday, Holderman and Diaz met with the agent to discuss getting him a
visa, Donovan said. During that meeting, the agent put $400,000 of what he
said was drug money on the table and asked Holderman and Diaz whether they
could help him launder it, Donovan said.

The two men agreed to help the agent if they could charge him a one-time
fee of $250,000 and 20 percent of all money laundered afterward, Donovan said.

When they began to count the money, they were arrested.