Sutnar Sentenced : Land Fraud Figure Gets Probation

A federal judge on Monday sentenced a prominent Valley real-estate consultant to three years probation and 300 hours of community service for his part in falsifying a letter used to inflate the value of Santa Monica Mountains property sold to the National Park Service.

Radoslav L. Sutnar, 58, was also ordered to pay a $1,000 fine. However, U.S. District Judge Harry L. Hupp turned down the prosecutor’s request that Sutnar be ordered to pay restitution of up to half of any commission he makes on the 1985 transaction. Sutnar could have been sentenced to a maximum of five years in federal prison.

In a ruling that could hamper the government’s hopes of regaining some of the $8 million it paid for 336 acres of oak woodland in Agoura Hills, Hupp said it had not been proved that the government paid more than the property was worth.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Ralph F. Hirschmann said after the hearing that he still intends to argue for restitution at the Sept. 14 sentencing of Jerry Y. Oren, an Encino developer who sold the property to the government. Sutnar worked for Oren, 61, who was convicted July 15 of wire fraud and making a false statement in a matter involving the National Park Service.

Land or Money

Before Sutnar’s sentencing, Hirschmann said he was considering asking for Oren to be ordered to either donate other land to the Park Service or repay as much as $1.7 million of the proceeds of the sale.

Sutnar pleaded no contest on May 7 to a felony charge of aiding and abetting wire fraud for his part in changing the date on a letter that contained a fabricated offer to buy Oren’s property. The letter was given to an appraiser in an attempt to falsely increase the purported value of the land, which in turn led the government into paying $8 million for it.

A plea of no contest has the same effect as a guilty plea, but cannot be used against Sutnar in a civil suit.

Sutnar has filed a civil suit against the man who owned the property, saying he was not paid his commission of 10% of the sale price.

The letter, a key piece of evidence in Oren’s trial, said that Union Pacific was willing to pay more for the property than the government had agreed to pay. A vice president in Union Pacific’s land division testified that he had examined a brochure on the property but was not interested in making an offer on it.

Boast of Many Offers

Sutnar testified during Oren’s trial that Oren had the letter written by a business associate in New York and then ordered him to change the date. That was necessary, Hirschmann argued, so it would appear it was written before a meeting with government representatives at which Oren boasted that he had other offers.

At Sutnar’s sentencing Monday, his attorney, Mike Klarfeld, said Sutnar became an unwilling participant in something he knew was wrong, but “didn’t have the guts to walk away.”

Hupp agreed, commenting that he had received many letters persuading him that Sutnar “seems to have a lot of people who have good opinions of him.”

Sutnar is a prominent figure in Southern California real estate and development affairs. In 1985 and 1986, he was president of the Los Angeles Countywide Citizens’ Planning Council, a 50-member body that advises the Regional Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors on development issues.

Prosecutor Hirschmann told Hupp he supported probation for Sutnar, who cooperated as a government witness, but asked the judge to order him to pay half of any commission he receives as restitution.

Hupp rejected the proposal, telling Hirschmann that he had specifically excluded any testimony on the actual value of the land at the prosecution’s request and could not, therefore, establish whether the government paid too much for it.

“You flat-out convinced me that the value of the land was irrelevant,” Hupp said. “I kept out the value of the property. As a result, I don’t know the value of the property.”

Hirschmann said he would prepare a detailed memorandum on the issue of restitution before Oren’s sentencing.