Plea Ends Trial : Man Admits Giving Bribe to Get Loans

John DeMattia, who went to trial along with several major West Coast organized crime figures, pleaded guilty Wednesday to bribery and wire fraud in securing loans and falsified credit references for Las Vegas gamblers from two Orange County banks.

DeMattia, 50, of Sherman Oaks admitted to conspiring with organized crime figures to commit extortion. The plea cut short his trial in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, in which he was acting as his own lawyer.

DeMattia’s plea brought to eight the number of defendants who have admitted crimes in a case that prosecutors claimed “crippled” organized crime in Southern California.

In addition, DeMattia pleaded guilty to paying a $1,000 bribe to an unnamed Sunwest Bank official to arrange a $20,044 loan.

“We know that there was some problem,” Sunwest President William Mylymok said. “John DeMattia was named as having gotten loans before at Sunwest.”

But Mylymok said he joined the bank along with its new owners--Centennial Beneficial Corp. of the City of Orange--who bought it in June, 1985. He said the questionable loans “go back a long way.”

New Owners File Suit

“From what I know, there doesn’t seem to be anybody here who was involved with the loans who is still with the banks,” Mylymok said.

After acquiring Sunwest, Centennial quickly filed a lawsuit alleging that former directors and officers negligently operated the bank and misrepresented its financial condition before the transaction.

DeMattia also pleaded guilty to wire fraud in a scheme to arrange gambling credit by using fake and overstated bank account reports from Far Western Bank of Tustin.

Officials of Far Western declined comment.

“No comment. I’m sorry. That’s it--no comment. That’s all I can say,” Far Western President Richard Trotter said.

No bank officials were named in charges, filed by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles. But the investigation is ongoing, said Richard Stavin, an attorney with the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Strike Force.

Clients of Casinos

Stavin said DeMattia obtained 8 to 10 loans from Sunwest Bank, totaling about $100,000. The loans were for himself and unnamed “others,” according to the charges.

In the Far Western case, Stavin said DeMattia, working with an unnamed bank employee, arranged for lines of credit, whereby both money and gambling chips were obtained in Las Vegas casinos. The bank provided financial references for unnamed clients of several casinos--including the Las Vegas Hilton, the MGM Grand and the Desert Inn and Country Club, according to Stavin.

DeMattia’s confederate provided records of accounts that were “temporarily inflated by an officer of Far Western Bank,” Stavin said.

Asked whether DeMattia was paying off a Far Western official, Stavin said, “You could infer that they did have somebody who was cooperating.”

DeMattia, through a lawyer who once represented him, declined comment.

Federal prosecutors consider DeMattia a minor player in the mob trial, in which reputed mob boss Peter J. Milano and six others pleaded guilty last week. Authorities said DeMattia was not a mob member, but an associate of organized crime figures. He had been convicted of bookmaking in 1980.