<p>A prominent attorney with a list of celebrity clients was charged Wednesday with covering up a loan to an Atlanta organization backed with $500,000 in drug profits and coaching a federal grand jury witness to lie about it.</p><p>Sam Burstyn made his initial appearance on charges of money-laundering conspiracy, conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice and procuring false testimony in Fort Lauderdale. U.S. Magistrate Judge Lurana Snow ordered him jailed until Monday for a bond hearing.</p><p>The jail stay will be a stark contrast to Burstyn's posh lifestyle. His penthouse office is on Miami's glitzy Brickell Avenue, and he lives among millionaires on Miami Beach's exclusive Sunset Island. He has represented actor Robin Givens and the estranged wives of tennis player Boris Becker and German billionaire Alexander Otto as well as drug defendants in the infamous Miami River Cops case.</p><p>The charges stem from a $498,250 loan made by Burstyn to an undisclosed owner of Auto Fund of Atlanta in 1998, for which he took drug money as collateral, prosecutors charged.</p><p>Jeffrey Tobin, who was indicted on marijuana smuggling charges last year, and an Auto Fund owner, repaid part of the high-interest loan with checks, but Burstyn was unwilling to use the cash collateral as repayment "because of possible detection by law enforcement," the indictment said.</p><p>Burstyn acted as "house counsel" for the $80 million marijuana smuggling venture, which allegedly moved marijuana from Mexico to stash houses in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona, and on to Florida since 1991, the indictment charged. Prosecutors claim the smugglers protected their operation with kidnapping, witness intimidation and attempted murder.</p><p>Burstyn advised drug defendant Jeffrey Tobin to flee to avoid arrest and organized meetings to solicit false and misleading testimony from grand jury witnesses, prosecutors charged. He also tried to cover up the loan by advising a grand jury witness to falsely deny receiving any money from Tobin's brother David in 2003.</p><p>Burstyn was originally indicted under seal last October, the charges were updated Tuesday, and the case was unsealed when he reached court Wednesday.</p><p>Burstyn joins a host of other Miami criminal defense attorneys charged with crossing the line from legitimate legal work to committing crimes. Several attorneys were convicted of helping Colombia's Cali drug cartel and a pair of Miami cocaine smuggling partners.</p><p>"Lawyers are always targets so I'd have to see an indictment and a lot of proof before I'd think Sam Burstyn would do anything, or any lawyers for that matter," said criminal defense attorney Fred Haddad.</p><p>Attorney Frank Quintero, who was acquitted of drug money laundering charges after two trials ending in 1999, called Burstyn an aggressive defender of his clients.</p><p>"If you stand up and give the government a hard time and make agents look bad, even if you lose, the government still takes it very, very personal," said Quintero. "I've lived it and I'll tell you something. It's going to be a very, very tormented period for Sam and his family."</p>
