The Region - News from Sept. 10, 1985

The former proprietor of a now-bankrupt La Mesa commodities investment firm was sentenced to 10 years in prison and ordered to make restitution of $2 million after pleading guilty to four federal charges of mail fraud and fraud by a commodities pool operator. Bernard Striar, 61, was also placed on five years’ probation and an additional 10-year sentence was suspended. He originally was indicted on 120 counts of fraud arising from his operation of D&B; Investment Associates, but 116 of the charges were dropped when he agreed to plead guilty on the remaining four. Striar, who served a prison term for forgery and grand larceny in the 1960s, lived in San Diego from 1976 until his arrest last year under the name of Eldean (Don) Erickson, one of several aliases he used in what authorities said was a 20-year career as a confidence man.