Brunei playboy Prince Jefri Bolkiah appeared in New York City court this week in a case against his former lawyers who he fired in 2006. Bolkiah engaged Thomas and Faith Zaman Derbyshire, a husband-and-wife lawyer couple to look after his affairs after his public fall-out with his brother the Sultan of Brunei over an alleged embezzlement of $16 billion from the tiny sultanate's treasury when he was finance minister.

Bolkiah says he has since reconciled with his brother and agreed to repay some funds to the Brunei government, although legal proceedings continue as Brunei demands the prince hand over control of the New York Palace hotel and Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles which he alledgly bought with the embezzled funds. Prince Bolkiah, who denied embezzling funds from Brunei, appointed the Derbyshires in 2004 to sort through the various orders made against him, including an arrest warrant.

Although proceeding to look after the legal work the prince says the Derbyshires moved into an apartment in the New York Palace Hotel on a substantially reduced rent of $500 a week. He said they also ran up personal expenses on the hotel's credit card including purchases of more than $50,000 worth of jewellery, $18,000 worth of beauty treatments, and $1000 in motorcycle accessories. He says they took profits for themselves on a real estate deal they handled for him and overall owe him $7 million. The Derbyshires deny the allegations and say everything they did the flamboyant prince authorised, and they are in fact owed $12 million in legal fees.