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Michael Egan — who sued X-Men director Bryan Singer and three others last April for teen sex abuse, only to drop his suits within months in the face of his own contradictory sworn statements — was arraigned Tuesday in North Carolina on federal securities fraud and wire fraud charges.
He was allowed to remain free on a $50,000 unsecured bond, but was required to surrender his passport while his domestic travel was restricted to portions of Nevada and North Carolina. He is also required to undergo drug testing, according to an observer at the hearing who spoke with The Hollywood Reporter.
Egan pled not guilty to what the assistant U.S. attorney called “a partial Ponzi scheme,” according to the observer, Gregg Schneider, a friend of the four men Egan had sued. A status conference was set for Jan. 26 and a “docket call” — a rough trial date — was set for Feb. 2. Egan was accompanied by his mother and fiancee.
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Egan’s criminal defense attorney, Mark Foster, said the date would probably be postponed and added, “we plan on fighting these charges at trial.”
In perhaps the only surprising moment, Schneider said that Foster noted during the hearing that Egan had been consulting him for the past two years, suggesting that Egan may have known federal charges were in the offing even as he was bringing suit in Hawaii and Los Angeles against Singer and executives Gary Goddard, Garth Ancier and David Neuman.
Read more Complexities Multiply for Hollywood Sex Abuse Accuser After Criminal Indictment, Civil Suit
Those cases crumbled when Egan’s inconsistent sworn statements emerged, and Egan is now a defendant in a Hawaii malicious prosecution case filed by Ancier. In October, the judge in that case admonished Egan “not to lie to me” after Egan falsely claimed in court not to have received outside assistance with his legal papers.
Email: jh@jhandel.com
Twitter: @jhandel
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