Says Prosecutors Reneged : Fraud Defendant Asks to Change Guilty Plea

The patriarch of a family of swindlers who admitted that he traded empty promises for $8.5 million from 1,600 precious-metals investors sought Monday to withdraw his guilty plea.

Joel Fisch, whose operations included an office in El Toro, claimed that federal prosecutors broke the promises they made when he agreed to plead guilty last summer.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Leon W. Weidman said the 58-year-old Fisch has simply developed a case of cold feet after his son Todd, 27, was sentenced to 20 years in prison last month, the longest penalty for a boiler-room operation ever handed down in Los Angeles. The sentence is being appealed. Joel Fisch’s wife Joan was placed on probation.

Joel Fisch pleaded guilty to the same charges and faces the same federal judge, James M. Ideman. Todd Fisch’s plea for leniency was based on his claim that his father created and ran the swindles, telling the son what to do.

Alvin E. Entin, lawyer for Joel Fisch, said that for his client there is no difference between a heavy and a light sentence. “We fully expected Joel to get 10 years. Based on his age and the state of his health, that’s the rest of his life. The sentence makes no difference,” Entin said.

Entin said prosecutors had promised to tell the judge about everything Joel Fisch had done to cooperate but then reneged. Therefore Fisch should be allowed to withdraw his plea and go to trial, Entin said.

The arrangement was supposed to be “a package deal,” settling the criminal cases against father, mother and son, Entin claimed.

Last July, Fisch pleaded guilty to six counts of mail and wire fraud and conspiracy. At the time, prosecutors agreed that “the government will also make known to the court all cooperation by the Fisches at the time of sentence.”

Weidman said the government “fully complied with the plea agreement.”

Ideman set a hearing for next month in the case.