Mystery Shrouds Slaying of Man Boasting Mafia Tie

Mystery surrounded the execution-style slaying in Irvine over the weekend of a man who had bragged of having connections to organized crime in New York City while promoting an allegedly fraudulent investment scheme in Orange County that resulted in his arrest two years ago.

The murder victim, George (Big George) Peter Yudzevich, 46, of New York City, also testified last fall before a county grand jury investigating Robert (Fat Bobby) Paduano, an alleged underworld figure from Newport Beach who is accused of extortion, authorities said.

But a law enforcement source expressed skepticism that Yudzevich’s slaying might be connected with the Paduano case.

Yudzevich’s body was found early Saturday in the parking lot of Three D Departments Inc. in the 18000 block of South Mitchell, a high-technology business and industrial center in Irvine. Police said he had been shot at least three times in the head.

“It looks as if he were shot in a car that was parked here,” Irvine police Sgt. Dick Bowman said Sunday. The body then was dumped onto the asphalt lot, he said.

Car Impounded as Evidence

The car, described as a late-model black Lincoln, was left behind by Yudzevich’s killer or killers, he said. Police have impounded it as evidence.

“We don’t know what the motive (for the murder) is at this point,” Bowman said.

Orange County Deputy Dist. Atty. Wallace Wade said Sunday that Yudzevich had testified before the Orange County grand jury last fall in its investigation of Paduano, who was identified in a 1978 state Organized Crime Control Commission report as one of 92 Californians with underworld connections.

As a result of the grand jury probe, Paduano was arrested in February on 73 felony counts of robbery, burglary, assault and extortion. Preliminary hearings in West Orange County Municipal Court are scheduled to continue this week in the Paduano case.

Coincidentally, testimony had concluded last week in a preliminary hearing in Harbor Municipal Court on the investment fraud charges against Yudzevich, Wade said. A judge’s ruling is pending on whether there was sufficient evidence to try Yudzevich in Superior Court, he said.

Wade said Yudzevich “was not what I’d describe as a key witness” in the grand jury’s action against Paduano. He added that Yudzevich’s death would not have a major effect on the case against Paduano.

Invovlement in Investment Scam

Another law enforcement official, who asked not to be identified, said Yudzevich’s murder appears less likely to be linked to the Paduano case than to Yudzevich’s own alleged involvement in the 1986 investment scam, in which Yudzevich claimed he was a member of organized crime.

Paduano’s lawyer, Alan May, said he met Sunday with his client, who denied any knowledge or involvement in Yudzevich’s murder.

“Yes, (Yudzevich) was called--as were a lot of people--to testify against Bob (Paduano),” May said. “But he was only a peripheral witness in Bob’s case. He never had any business with Bob, nor was he ever an alleged victim of any of the robberies (that Paduano is accused of committing).”

May said it was his understanding that Yudzevich had once “borrowed” some employees of Paduano’s to help with collections of debts.

“But that is no reason (for Paduano) to be behind a killing,” he said.

Yudzevich was arrested Feb. 27, 1986, by Newport Beach police, who said he and two other men had bilked at least five Orange County investors of about $350,000. The alleged scam involved telling investors that they could “make big money” by helping Las Vegas and Atlantic City casinos launder organized crime money through gambling by third parties.

Police said in 1986 that Yudzevich won over investors’ confidence by bragging about being “a full member of an organized crime family in New York City.” But police said no casinos appeared to be involved with him.

According to Newport Beach police, Yudzevich and two other suspects--Joe Grosso, 44, of Fullerton and Gregory Moeller, 36, of Irvine--urged Orange County investors to give them money, allegedly promising them that the money would reach gamblers in Las Vegas and Atlantic City and would be returned with handsome profits.

Those who lost money in the scam were discouraged from going to police because the suspects told them that organized crime figures were involved and might get angry, Newport Beach police said.

In 1986, Newport Beach Police Sgt. Richard P. Long said Yudzevich, Grosso and Moeller “would play the role out that they were organized crime figures.” Law enforcement officials successfully asked the courts to set high bail--$1 million each--for the three after their arrest, saying Yudzevich, Gross and Moeller allegedly had made death threats against people who might testify against them.

Bowman said Sunday that Yudzevich had no known connection with the modernistic office building where Three D Departments Inc. is located on South Mitchell, at the intersection of Red Hill Avenue.

“It looks as if this place was just picked at random,” he said. “It could have been here or anywhere else.”

Bowman said police believe the murder took place sometime between 7 p.m. Friday and 1:45 a.m. Saturday, when employees of businesses in the area found Yudzevich’s body. The body was found at the rear of the parked black Lincoln, near a light pole and a flower-bedecked garden area. The parking slot is marked “visitor” and faces the main door to the company’s offices about 30 yards away.

Bowman, who was at the scene when the body was discovered, said police still do not know how the murderer or murderers left the scene after abandoning both Yudzevich and the car in which he was slain. Police are trying to determine who owns the black Lincoln, he said.

Asked if the crime scene indicated that there was more than one murderer, Bowman said, “I haven’t the faintest idea if it’s one, two or three.” But he agreed that it would take an unusually large man to be able to subdue Yudzevich, who was 6 feet 7 inches tall and weighed about 360 pounds.

Yudzevich was shot at close range, Bowman said, adding that he did not know if he was being restrained by other men or was bound up at the time of the shooting. The make and model of the murder weapon has not been determined pending further testing.

Bowman declined to speculate on whether the murder had earmarks of an organized crime “hit.”

“There are all kinds of scenarios,” he said. “There are many things one could read into this. Right now, we’re still investigating.”

Times staff writer Ray Perez contributed to this story.