Counsel for Metals Exchange Also Sports a Colorful Past

SAN DIEGO — Andrew Borthwick isn’t the only First International Metals Exchange official who has piqued the interest of authorities investigating the firm.

William Drexler, 54, described by an investor in an FBI affidavit as FIME’s corporate counsel, has a colorful past that includes a controversial court case here in which he was convicted of peddling tax-evasion schemes.

Drexler says he was a minor player at FIME. “I don’t know what they were doing . . . they let it run by itself,” he said in a brief telephone interview.

Asked whether there were any funds left at FIME--which may have received more than $1 million from 100 investors--Drexler replied: “You’re asking the wrong guy. The janitor doesn’t know what the president is doing.”

Drexler acknowledged that, in April, he attempted to sell the company--but he maintains that he was acting on orders from Borthwick, who claimed he wanted to get out of the precious metals business and into a mining venture in Nevada.

Drexler was disbarred in Minnesota in 1971 for jury tampering, misrepresentation of a divorce stipulation, converting court-controlled assets and concealing and diverting assets, according to documents obtained from the Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board.

In San Diego, Drexler was convicted in 1981 of conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud for selling phony ministerial degrees and church charters as tax dodges. At the time, he was known as a self-appointed “archbishop” of the Life Science Church and the Church of Christ.

Drexler and his son, authorities charged, sold packets of information for as much as $4,000 each, detailing ways that “ordained ministers” of his church could avoid federal income tax by buying their own churches.

For additional money, a federal grand jury charged, the Drexlers would backdate church documents so the “ministers” could receive the same tax advantages for years past.