Counterfeiting Charge : Tarzana Man Out on $50,000 Bail

A San Fernando Valley man was released on $50,000 bail Friday after his indictment by a federal grand jury on conspiracy and counterfeiting charges involving an alleged scheme to distribute phony $100 bills.

Jack Catain Jr., 56, of Tarzana, was ordered by U.S. Magistrate Venetta S. Tassopulos to appear in federal court for arraignment April 28. The indictment was handed down Thursday, two weeks after counterfeiting charges stemming from a 1981 indictment were dismissed by a federal court judge, who ruled that Catain’s chronic heart problems were too serious for him to stand trial.

Stanley Sarubbe, 52, of Northridge, accused of being a co-conspirator, was also summoned to appear April 28 for arraignment in U.S. District Court.

Edwin J. Gale, a prosecutor with the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Strike Force, said the two men were involved in “multiple distributions of currency” to undercover Secret Service agents from October, 1984, to May, 1985.

4 Others Tried

The prosecutor said four other men named as unindicted co-conspirators in the case have already been tried on separate, unrelated counterfeiting charges. The four were identified as Stewart Noble, Richard Clark, Alan Kent and Robert Diamond.

The earlier counterfeiting case against Catain was dismissed on April 3 by U.S. District Judge William P. Gray.

The three-count indictment lists two instances in April and May of 1985 when Catain and Sarubbe allegedly gave a total of $50,200 to two of the co-conspirators.

Catain, who was named as an underworld figure in a 1969 Senate investigation headed by former Sen. John L. McClellan (D-Ark.), was ordered to testify in 1984 before a federal grand jury investigating possible scalping of Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl tickets in 1980. No indictments were handed down.

James A. Twitty, the defense attorney, told Tassopulos the new charges are really part of the 1981 counterfeiting case, Gale said.

Gale said the new charges involve “a different time period and different transfers of money” that occurred while Catain was free on bail in the previous case.

Federal prosecutors have not yet decided whether to appeal Gray’s ruling but will try to keep him from presiding over the more recent case, Gale said.