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Local News in Brief : Minkow ‘Launderer’ Gets 18-Month Term

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A Simi Valley man who admitted helping ZZZZ Best founder Barry Minkow launder more than $500,000 in corporate funds through Las Vegas casinos in the days before the carpet cleaning company’s collapse was sentenced Monday to 18 months in prison.

Jerry Polevoi, 42, of Simi Valley, also pleaded guilty to securities fraud conspiracy charges for selling ZZZZ Best stock short when he had inside information that Minkow was about to resign amid reports that much of the Reseda-based company’s business was fake.

Except for Minkow, who will be sentenced next week, Polevoi was the last of 12 ZZZZ Best associates to be sentenced in what federal prosecutors said was a $70-million swindle.

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Polevoi’s attorney, Carla Woehrle, argued that he was led into “what looked like the opportunity of a lifetime” by his brother, Jack, who previously received the same prison sentence. “I can’t tell you,” Polevoi added, “. . . what a complete fool I’ve been to associate with Barry Minkow.”

But U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian said Polevoi’s gambling with ZZZZ Best funds in Las Vegas “was like being a grave robber.”

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