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India-born celebrity fashion designer Anand Jon Alexander, sentenced to 59 years in prison for sexually assaulting aspiring models, has told a court in New York that he was a pauper.
The 36-year-old fashion designer, who has worked with celebrities like Paris Hilton, said he was broke.
"I've been incarcerated since 2007," Alexander whined to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Richard Carruthers on Wednesday, during a hearing on charges that he sexually assaulted at least nine women and underage girls between 2002 and 2006.
"I've been out of work since then," New York Daily News quoted him as telling the court.
The hearing in New York is separate from the case against Alexander in California, which concluded in 2008, with the designer being convicted of sexually assaulting seven women and girls, and receiving a sentence of 59 years' life-imprisonment.
Alexander, a former guest designer on top-rated TV show 'America's Top Model', dismissed prosecutors' claims that he was hiding money.
One of his lawyers, Adam Freedman, told the judge that his client "has no resources left."
He said Alexander needs two lawyers -- paid US$ 75 an hour each by taxpayers -- because the case is 'complicated'.
At the hearing, Alexander pleaded not guilty to the charges. He faces 49 counts and up to 25 years in prison if he is convicted.