ZZZZ Best Probe Links Deputy D.A. to Suspect

An organized crime investigation into the ZZZZ Best carpet cleaning company has produced evidence that a deputy district attorney leaked confidential information to one of the key suspects, police officials said.

The state attorney general’s office has been asked to consider obstruction of justice charges against Deputy Dist. Atty. Michael Edward Consiglio, who has been on paid leave for seven months pending the results of the inquiry, Los Angeles Police Department Cmdr. William Booth said Thursday.

According to police documents, Consiglio, 47, a prosecutor with 14 years experience, “warned” two Encino men that they “and other organized crime figures” were under surveillance. The documents allege that Consiglio became “close friends” with one of the men, Maurice Rind, who has two felony convictions, and tapped a law enforcement computer on his behalf.

“We think there is evidence that Consiglio committed a crime that needs to be considered by a prosecutor to determine if the evidence is sufficient to prosecute,” Booth said.

The case was turned over to the attorney general in December, he said, to avoid the conflict of interest that would result if the district attorney’s office was asked to prosecute one of its own members.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Charlene Hanaka, who is handling the case for the state prosecutor’s office, would not comment on the inquiry.

Consiglio, who was assigned to the prosecutor’s Van Nuys office, declined to be interviewed. But according to police records, he acknowledged to detectives that he and Rind were friends, and that he had gotten some information for Rind. Consiglio told investigators “he hoped he had not done anything wrong,” the documents say.

“I think the whole matter will be resolved favorably to him,” said Consiglio’s lawyer, Mitchell Egers. “Consiglio never engaged in anything improper, unethical or illegal.”

Consiglio had a “minimal kind of contact” with Rind, Egers said, and knew only that “Rind had been convicted of what he thought was a technical offense of being an undisclosed officer in a brokerage house.”

But Rind, who served prison terms for stock and mail fraud in the 1970s, said in an interview this week that he and Consiglio had been friends since 1984, and that he recommended commodity, stock and art purchases for Consiglio.

Rind said Consiglio only gave him public information on motor vehicle violations, however, and he termed ludicrous police allegations that he is linked to organized crime.

‘Not a Criminal’

“I am not a criminal,” Rind said. “I have never been a criminal. I don’t have to know criminals to make money.”

The case against Consiglio was compiled by the police Organized Crime Intelligence Division, which has been investigating ZZZZ Best for nearly a year. A separate, federal investigation resulted in the indictment last month of ZZZZ Best founder Barry Minkow and 10 others on fraud and racketeering charges. Three of the defendants have since pleaded guilty.

Neither Rind, 49, nor his business partner, Richard Schulman, 53, have been arrested or charged in the ZZZZ Best case, but police reports submitted to a congressional subcommittee described them as behind-the-scenes financiers and advisers to the company.

ZZZZ Best, founded by Minkow in his parents’ Reseda garage, collapsed last July amid allegations that grossly inflated revenue reports had helped it become a hot stock on Wall Street, earning fortunes for the 21-year-old Minkow and others. Police said that Rind and Schulman earned more than $1 million each on one stock deal alone.

The allegations against Consiglio are outlined in lengthy, still-sealed affidavits filed by police to support search warrants served in the case last summer. The affidavits, examined by The Times, allege that:

- Consiglio warned Rind and Schulman that they and others were being watched by police. The police reports filed with the congressional panel, which held two hearings on ZZZZ Best, say that Rind “has connections with organized crime” and that Schulman is “a reputed associate of the Genovese crime family.”

- Consiglio, “under the direction” of Rind, obtained information about another suspect in the ZZZZ case, Ronnie A. Lorenzo, the manager of Malibu’s Splash restaurant, who is identified in the police reports as a reputed member of the Bonanno family.

The information was allegedly retrieved by Consiglio from the National Crime Information Center, a confidential computerized data network open only to law enforcement officials. It is a misdemeanor to give information from the network to people not authorized to receive it.

- Consiglio continued a relationship with Rind even after Police Chief Daryl F. Gates told a news conference last July that Rind was a suspect in his department’s investigation of organized crime families’ use of ZZZZ Best and other companies to “launder” profits from narcotics sales and other illegal activities.

Consiglio, who earns $68,400 a year in his county job, was ordered on administrative leave July 24, a spokesman for the district attorney said.

Personnel Hearings

The county prosecutor’s office will not hold its own personnel hearings on Consiglio until the criminal investigation is finished, according to the prosecutor’s chief deputy, Gilbert Garcetti.

“We have an investigator assigned” to the Consiglio case, he said, and “regardless of what the attorney general does, there will be a personnel review.”

The long investigation drew criticism Thursday from Deputy Dist. Atty. Larry Diamond, the second-in-command at the Van Nuys office where Consiglio worked.

“I’m becoming very skeptical,” Diamond said. “If there had been anything serious, something would have been done a long time ago.”

Consiglio is “very highly regarded” among his peers, he said.

Handled Case

In the interview this week, Rind said they first met when his Cadillac limousine was stolen and Consiglio was assigned to handle the criminal case that resulted. A former business associate of Rind’s subsequently was convicted of grand theft.

“Yes, I did become friends with him. A few times I had lunch with him,” Rind said, adding that he and Consiglio also attended a boxing match together in Reseda in 1986.

The search warrant affidavits allege that Consiglio was driven to the event in Rind’s limousine, chauffeured by Joseph Mangiapane. Mangiapane, 49, of Canoga Park, “is a reputed Lucchese organized crime associate,” according to the police reports filed with the House subcommittee.

Rind disputed the police description of the incident. He said Richman Financial had 60 tickets for the match, and that “Consiglio bought five” of them and went “in a separate car, not the limo,” with “law enforcement” friends.

As part of their friendship, Rind said, Consiglio bought stocks, commodities and art that he recommended in 1985 and 1986 and made “a few thousand” dollars. Rind, who is permanently barred by the Securities and Exchange Commission from acting as a stockbroker, said he never told Consiglio when to sell securities.

Name in Ledger

“We always talked about the market in general, casual conversations,” Rind said.

In serving search warrants on Rind’s Encino residence last July, police found Consiglio’s name on six of 54 pages in Rind’s ledgers, according to the affidavits. The entries included Consiglio’s residence and business addresses, telephone numbers, social security number and where he banked, along with numbers corresponding to stock purchases, police said.

Among the ledger sheets was a page “of people who owed money to Rind,” according to the affidavits, with the entry “Consig” next to the figure, “$4,000.”

This was not a loan, Rind said, but a reference to $4,000 Consiglio owed for two paintings.

Asked for DMV Information

Rind said Consiglio never told him that he was under police surveillance. The only police-related information his friend got him was about Lorenzo’s driving record, Rind said.

Rind said he needed to know if Lorenzo had any motor vehicle violations because Richman Financial--the investment company he runs with Schulman--was going to lend Lorenzo a car.

“I asked him (Consiglio) to get me DMV on the situation,” Rind said.

The state Department of Motor Vehicles, for a fee, makes public information on drivers, including recent traffic citations.

But the police affidavits contend that Consiglio tapped into the National Crime Information Center on Sept. 9 and Sept. 15, 1986, on Rind’s behalf.

According to the affidavits, Consiglio told detectives that Rind asked him for data on Lorenzo “to determine if a friend had any outstanding arrest warrants.”

In the Sept. 9 check, investigators say, Consiglio found that there was a fugitive warrant from New Jersey against Lorenzo for failure to pay a fine on an old conviction. Lorenzo subsequently paid the amount he owed.

Two Traffic Citations

Six days later, according to the affidavits, Consiglio retrieved information from the data network that showed that Lorenzo had had two traffic citations in Los Angeles County.

Consiglio is one of more than 800 deputy district attorneys in Los Angeles County, the largest local prosecuting agency in the country, office spokesman Al Albergate said.

The office’s government relations coordinator, Tom McDonald, considered an in-house historian, said his research showed that no Los Angeles County prosecutor has ever been accused of association with individuals linked to organized crime.

“It’s a very committed and talented work force,” Chief Deputy Garcetti said. “There’s not a higher calling in the legal profession than the role of the prosecutor who stands between the police and the courts.

“If a bad apple (surfaces), you have to put it in perspective--one deputy, whomever that may be. It’s so at odds with everyone else in this office.”