FBI Hears Pellicano Threat

Knecht said in a recent interview that the call from Pellicano was aimed at intimidating businessman Bilal Baroody, who had borrowed $300,000 from Meyer, his longtime friend and onetime neighbor.

"It was obvious that he was attempting to intimidate Baroody through me," Knecht said. "I knew it was no joke."

A federal grand jury indictment handed up in February charging Pellicano and others with racketeering and illegal wiretapping says that Pellicano illegally accessed Baroody's police records in March 1999. Pellicano has pleaded not guilty to the federal charges.

After receiving Pellicano's call five years ago, Knecht said, he warned Baroody, whom he was representing in other legal matters, saying, "You better take care of business. These guys sound serious."

Neither Pellicano, who is in jail awaiting trial, nor his attorney could be reached for comment. Baroody, now living in Morocco, could not be contacted. Meyer, president of Universal Studios, declined to comment.

However, a person close to Meyer said that after the studio chief lent Baroody the money, he turned to another friend, Pellicano, because Baroody didn't pay up or return his phone calls seeking an explanation. The person also said Meyer did not know what strong-arm tactics, if any, Pellicano used to try to collect on the debt.

Knecht said he was reminded of the call late last year during a closed-door meeting with federal authorities on behalf of another client.

"They told me in detail about my conversation with Pellicano

A native of Lebanon who lived in Kuwait before moving to the U.S., Baroody later founded his own aviation company and made a fortune trading in aircraft parts, according to his ex-wife, Jacqueline Collins.

She said she was not aware of Meyer's loan to Baroody or of Pellicano's alleged efforts to collect it. But by 1997, the year the loan was made, Baroody had lost his business and was in dire financial straits, she said.

"He lost our two houses in Malibu," she said. "He lost everything."

For years before then, records and interviews show, Baroody and Meyer were neighbors and friends who lived next door to each other in the exclusive enclave of the Malibu Colony.