F. Lee Bailey was once so famous that he’d regularly appear on television and even played himself in a movie. He did so much screen work that he evidently entitled himself to money in retirement. It wasn’t much, but under heavy debt, it’s become important. Now, however, the same week that his former client O.J. Simpson was released from prison, a bankruptcy judge is allowing the Internal Revenue Service to enforce federal tax liens on more than $1,000 a month in pensions from the SAG-AFTRA.
Bailey, 84, is now disbarred after a scandal erupted over misappropriated funds tied to a French smuggler he had been representing. He runs a consulting business in an apartment above a salon. He’s in bankruptcy thanks to more than $5 million the government asserts he owes in tax debt.