The rise and fall of Henry T

Henry T Nicholas III has become the Caligula of America's corporate Caesars. He towers above the common man at 6ft 6 and dwarfs him with his self-made fortune of $2 billion. Teaming up with his university physics professor, he designed the chip that rules the broadband universe, and parlayed it into Broadcom Corp. By day his philanthropy spreads to funding colleges in California's Orange County, his home turf, and to multi-million dollar crusades for tougher laws on drugs and crime. He pours funds into Gov Schwarzenegger's campaign chest and chipped in for Dubya Bush.

By night, it seems, he is someone else. A Grand Jury in Santa Ana has indicted him on multiple sex and drug crimes with an 18-page charge sheet that reads like pulp fiction. He is accused of building a secret cave under his mansion for orgies with prostitutes, cocaine, amphetamines and Viagra.

Prosecutors claim he spiked the drinks of clients and staff with ecstasy while employees hurried to chemists with pads of fake prescriptions for valium and vicoprofen. There were death threats, bribes and pay-offs. The pilot of a private jet testified to the day when the marijuana smoke was so thick from Nicholas and friends that he had to use his oxygen mask.

Yesterday, he pleaded not guilty to 21 charges of financial crimes as well as sex and drugs offences: Nicholas is accused of raking in millions through back-dated stock options without reporting them to the Securities and Exchange Commission. He remains on bail until the trial, now set for the end of July.

Nicholas, 48, spent May in the Betty Ford rehab centre. His wife is divorcing him - they have three children - and has filed papers expected to provide another thrilling read. The builders he hired for his sex cave are suing and accuse him of "manipulation, lies, intimidation and even death threats" as he bullied them to work at "warp speed".

The Los Angeles Times describes Nicholas as "the Elvis of semi-conductors, but more unhinged than the King ever was. The Phil Spector of micro-processors, but without the self-control".

He stands for more than that. As questions buzz over the venality of President Clinton's post-White House life among the super-rich, Nicholas's fall opens a window on the decadence of men convinced they are above the law. Do they all live like this? What goes on in 'Air Fuck One', the Boeing 757 owned by supermarket king Ron Burkle which flies Clinton around on his global do-good missions?

Nicholas is playing the cartoon version of an elite increasingly showing itself as financially corrupt, abusive of power and monstrously hypocritical in personal habits. He apparently buys cocaine in industrial quantities for orgies with whores while spending millions on a "victims' rights" bill for November's elections, and names it Marsy's Law after his own murdered sister. Nicholas has even been funding an Orange County Sheriff’s programme called Drug Use is Life Abuse.

If Nicholas goes down, another Caesar will have been caught indulging in life beyond the rules while the plebians run out of bread and circuses. ·