Local News in Brief : Deliberations Begin in Minkow Trial

After a 3 1/2-month trial, a Los Angeles federal court jury began deliberations Thursday on fraud and racketeering charges against former carpet cleaning kingpin Barry Minkow.

Before the case went to the jury, U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian spent about three hours reading the government’s 57-count indictment of Minkow and 143 pages of jury instructions.

Minkow, 22, was charged in January with orchestrating an elaborate securities hoax that made the stock value of his firm, ZZZZ Best of Reseda, soar even though most of the company’s business was bogus.

Prosecutors said Minkow was a con artist who planned the massive fraud. But Minkow’s attorney, David Kenner, argued that the one-time millionaire was coerced into a life of crime by mobsters who threatened and beat him.

Also on trial is accountant Norman Rothberg, 52, of Marina del Rey, charged with taking a bribe from Minkow and his associates to recant information about the alleged fraud that he had given to ZZZZ Best’s outside accountants.