Developer Who Defrauded U.S. May Be Asked to Supply Parkland

A prominent Encino developer convicted of defrauding the National Park Service in a 1984 land sale might be forced to donate parkland or otherwise make restitution of up to $1.7 million, according to prosecutors.

Jerry Y. Oren, a leading Southern California developer, was convicted July 15 of using a fake letter to inflate the price of a Santa Monica Mountains tract he sold to the Park Service for $7.5 million.

“We haven’t decided yet,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Ralph F. Hirschmann, “but we are studying the appropriateness of asking the judge to order restitution.”

The 61-year-old Oren is to be sentenced Sept. 14 by U.S. District Judge Harry L. Hupp in Los Angeles for the developer’s conviction on one count of wire fraud and one count of making a false statement in a matter within Park Service jurisdiction.

Oren could be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison and $11,000 in fines.

Inflated Value of 336 Acres

A jury found him guilty of using a fake letter to inflate the appraised value of 336 oak-covered acres in Agoura’s Cheeseboro Canyon. In the letter, a real estate agent told Oren that there was a $9.3-million offer on the property.

At his trial, Oren said he did not know the letter was fictitious.

Based on the letter, an appraiser set the property’s value at $8.4 million. An earlier appraisal had set the value at $5.8 million.

Hirschmann said that $1.7 million, the difference between the first appraisal and the sale price, would be the “upper limit” of any restitution demanded.

The prosecutor declined to say whether he would also ask that Oren be sentenced to jail.

The City of Agoura Hills and two conservation groups, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation, have sent letters to Hupp urging that Oren be required to donate land as restitution.

Owns Land North of Freeway

“The City Council feels it would be appropriate if some land were donated for park use in this case,” Agoura Hills Manager David Carmany said Monday.

He said that a “natural piece for public acquisition” would be Oren property north of the Ventura Freeway and south of the 336 acres sold by the developer in 1984.

In an interview Monday, James C. Chalfant, one of Oren’s attorneys, called the restitution proposal “outrageous.”

He said that the 336 acres Oren sold was “worth more than the $7.5 million he was paid and we expect to be able to prove that at sentencing.”

At the trial, Hupp repeatedly prevented the defense from introducing evidence about the land’s actual value, saying such testimony was irrelevant to the question of whether there was an scheme to defraud the government.

Petitioners Called ‘Vultures’

Chalfant said that groups petitioning Hupp to force Oren to donate land were “vultures, who are piggybacking off the misfortunes of Mr. Oren.”

He said the defense will argue that no restitution is called for “because there was no loss to the government.”

Radoslav L. Sutnar, a former president of the Los Angeles County Countywide Citizen’s Planning Council and a consultant to Oren in the transaction, pleaded no contest on May 7 to felony wire fraud for his part in the scheme.

Sutnar, whose no-contest plea is the equivalent of a guilty plea, is to be sentenced on July 27.