Local News in Brief : Lawyers Get Prison Terms
Two Beverly Hills attorneys have been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to filing false income tax returns that failed to report $50,000 they each allegedly netted by posing as home buyers in a $15-million real estate scam.
The attorneys, Peter Brown, 44, and Robert Baron, 47, of West Los Angeles, were among 11 people indicted in a scheme to obtain multimillion-dollar loans by submitting false loan documents and using “straw buyers” to artificially raise the price of nine homes and 23 condominiums in Santa Monica, Westlake Village, Studio City, Glendale, Bel-Air and Brentwood.
The man described by prosecutors as the mastermind, Peter Samson, 41, now of Maui, Hawaii, is scheduled to be sentenced July 7. The other eight people named in the 40-count indictment last October have received prison terms ranging from six months to three years.
Although Brown pleaded guilty to filing false tax returns in 1982 and 1983, and Baron admitted filing a false return in 1982, the defense said they only failed to report $15,000 in income.
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