Businessman Guilty of Forging, Cashing 400 Treasury Checks

The owner of a Sherman Oaks car rental company has been convicted in federal court of forging and cashing 400 stolen U.S. Treasury checks totaling $250,000, it was announced Friday.

Asst. U.S. Atty. David Wiechert said a jury late Thursday found Howard Tyrone Ferguson, 45, guilty of seven felony charges including conspiracy, receiving stolen government property and forgery.

Ferguson, who owns Alfa Rent-a-Car, acted “as a sort of clearinghouse” for stolen government checks, including several brought to him by unidentified postal employees, the prosecutor said. Testimony at the trial revealed that Ferguson bribed Charles Belcher, an official at the Century City branch of Security Pacific Bank, to authorize deposit of the forged checks in a bank account and subsequent withdrawal of cash from that account. Belcher, in a plea bargain with the prosecution, admitted his role in the scheme and testified against Ferguson. Belcher said he was paid $1,500 for his assistance in handling the checks during a three-month period in early 1983.

Sentencing Set June 3

U.S. District Judge Pamela Rymer scheduled his sentencing for June 3.

Meanwhile, Ferguson has some new troubles with the law, having been arrested during the trial on suspicion of trafficking in drugs after FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration agents seized 30 pounds of cocaine in a car registered to the Alfa firm.

Ferguson’s record also includes a 1982 conviction in Los Angeles Superior Court on charges of diverting $347,000 from a $390,000 Southern California Edison contract to his own use instead of using the money to pay for labor and materials. He had a contract to remodel Edison offices in Alhambra but spent only $43,000 on the project, sheriff’s fraud investigators said.