Developer on Trial in Fraud : Appraiser Says Oren Verified Fake Letter

A real-estate appraiser testified Thursday that prominent Encino developer Jerry Y. Oren repeatedly insisted that a fictitious letter aimed at inflating the price of a Santa Monica Mountains parcel of land he owned was valid.

Appraiser Thomas W. Erickson also said that Oren, on trial in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles, “told me that he did not want any of the parties in the letter contacted” for verification.

The 1984 letter informed Oren on the stationery of a New York real estate agent that Union Pacific had offered about $9.3 million for 336 acres in Cheeseboro Canyon near Agoura.

A Union Pacific vice president testified earlier that no such offer was made.

Letter Used in Estimate

Erickson testified that, based on Oren’s assurance that the letter was truthful, he relied on it in raising his estimate of the value of the land. An earlier appraisal put the land’s value at $5.8 million.

The tract was sold by Oren in January, 1985, for $7.5 million to the Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit organization that buys land for resale to federal or local parks agencies.

The San Francisco-based trust immediately resold the land for $8 million to the National Park Service for its Santa Monica Mountains Recreation Area.

Oren, 51, is charged with wire fraud and making a false statement in a matter within the jurisdiction of the National Park Service.

Faces 10 Years in Prison

If convicted in the jury trial, Oren could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison and fined $11,000.

There has been contradictory testimony on who requested that the letter be written.

Moshe Ziv, a New York City real estate agent described as a “very close friend” of Oren, said he could not recall whether it was Oren or Radoslav L. Sutnar, an Oren consultant, who asked him for a letter about an offer from Union Pacific.

The request occurred in a telephone call to him in New York from Oren and Sutnar in Encino, Ziv said.

“As I recall, Mr. Sutnar was the one who approached me and not Mr. Oren,” Ziv said.

Under repeated questioning from Asst. U. S. Atty. Ralph F. Hirschmann, Ziv later backed away from that assertion and said: “I am really confused about that phone call. I know Jerry asked me to do him a favor. I don’t know if he asked me to do what Mr. Sutnar asked me to do.”

Listened on Speaker Phone

Sutnar, who has pleaded no contest to fraud in the case, testified Wednesday that he overheard Oren and Ziv on a speaker phone working out the terms of the purported offer from Union Pacific.

He quoted Oren as telling Ziv, “Moshe, make it look good.”

Sutnar said he later mailed Ziv notes he took on the conversation, and that those notes were copied “exactly” in the fictitious letter that arrived from Ziv’s firm a short time later.

The letter to Oren was signed by Daniel J. Hirsch, Ziv’s partner.

Ziv was originally accused of writing the letter, but the fraud charge was dropped in April. Prosecutors said there was not enough evidence to prove that Ziv knew the offer was to be used to defraud.

Ziv testified Thursday that he didn’t write the letter.