Factory Owner Is Innocent, Attorney Says : Charges in Arson Case Called ‘Theory’

Federal charges that an Agoura Hills businessman orchestrated a $2.6-million arson-insurance fraud involving his Sun Valley plant are “nothing but an elaborate theory,” a defense attorney argued Tuesday as the businessman’s trial began in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles.

There is no evidence that Robert Feldman set fire to his Grow Gear Inc. aircraft-parts factory on Jan. 30, 1982, Van Nuys attorney A. Brent Carruth said in his opening statement. He also said Feldman had not set five fires in the 1970s with which he is also charged.

“If there is any fraud that comes before you, it’s not the fraud of Mr. Feldman, it’s the fraud of the government,” Carruth told the jury. He said Feldman was on an airplane to Taiwan at the time of the Grow Gear fire and that “there’s not going to be evidence that he burned anything.”

Pattern Described

U. S. Atty. Richard Callahan has said previously that the case against Feldman is complex and based on circumstantial evidence. On Tuesday, he detailed for the jury a pattern of fires at Feldman’s businesses dating from 1972. Repeatedly, he said, a downturn in business had led to arson and insurance claims.

“Since 1972, Robert Feldman has owned four major businesses and all of these businesses were destroyed by acts of arson, acts in which he capitalized in the millions of dollars,” Callahan said.

Callahan and Carruth said they plan to call 40 witnesses each in the trial, which they predicted could last three to five weeks.

Feldman was indicted Sept. 12 on 18 counts stemming from the Sun Valley fire. But the indictment was expanded Oct. 31 to accuse him of a pattern of racketeering that includes five earlier fires at three businesses in Massachusetts.

The charges in the original indictment carry a maximum penalty of 92 years in prison and a $30,000 fine. The addition of the racketeering charge enabled prosecutors to seek forfeiture of proceeds of the alleged schemes.

Free on Bail

Feldman, 55, is free on $400,000 bail.

In his opening argument, Callahan said that Feldman was responsible for a 1973 fire at Treasure Island, a restaurant he owned in Worcester County, Mass., and for two fires at each of two car washes in Suffolk County, Mass., from 1973 to 1976. Feldman collected $264,000 in insurance after the Treasure Island fire and $16,000 from the car-wash fires, he said.

The Grow Gear fire was the centerpiece of a scheme to defraud the Chubb Insurance Group, according to the indictment. Feldman claimed and received more than $2.6 million from Chubb and hid the money using a series of domestic transactions, overseas bank account transfers and “shell corporations,” Callahan said.

Investigators have traced much of the money to a bank in Israel, he said.

Callahan said one of his witnesses will testify that a time clock found at the hottest point of the Grow Gear blaze “could have been a device to start the fire.”

Ordered Drums

He said he would present testimony that Feldman had personally ordered four 55-gallon drums of combustible oils and solvents, on top of a routine order that the plant’s purchasing agent had placed for two drums. Feldman also ordered 10 five-gallon gas cans, Callahan said. Six empty drums and 10 cans similar to those Feldman had ordered were found in the destroyed structure, he said.

Carruth, in a statement that followed Callahan’s, said the time clock would not make for strong evidence against his client.