Drug Money Case Suspect Refused Bail

Chris Petti, a reputed organized crime figure who allegedly helped San Diego businessman Richard T. Silberman launder $300,000 offered by an undercover agent as Colombian cocaine proceeds, was ordered held without bail Thursday by a federal magistrate who called him a threat to society.

After a 45-minute hearing, U.S. Magistrate Roger Curtis McKee said prosecutors had persuaded him that Petti, 62, “is a danger to at least some portion of the community” and should remain in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center pending a preliminary hearing April 21.

Petti’s attorney, Oscar Goodman of Las Vegas, said he would appeal McKee’s decision to a U.S. District Court judge on Monday.

Meanwhile, Jack Norman Myers of Los Angeles, the fourth individual charged in a money-laundering scheme allegedly directed by Silberman, surrendered and was arraigned before McKee on Thursday. Myers, 43, a man with a compact build, ruddy complexion and thick, graying hair, was allowed to remain free on a $100,000 personal surety bond to be secured by his parents’ home.

Prosecutors had asked that bail for Myers be set at $200,000. But McKee reduced the amount after Myers’ attorney noted that his client has strong ties to Los Angeles--including a 14-year-old son--and continuing obligations at his Westwood business services firm, First Transnational Co.

A federal affidavit says Myers and Darryl Nakatsuka acted as couriers for Silberman in two transactions involving a total of $300,000--money an undercover agent told them originated with Colombian drug traffickers. Nakatsuka, 42, of Pasadena, was arraigned Tuesday and is free on bail.

Sources said Myers, the former son-in-law of entertainment magnate Lew Wasserman, has known Silberman since the two raised funds for past campaigns of former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. His attorney, Barry Tarlow of Los Angeles, confirmed that relationship Thursday and said Myers and Silberman have “a long business history together” as well.

Tarlow also said the 76-page affidavit “contains not a single word suggesting my client committed a crime. They have wiretaps. They have videotapes. If my client had done something wrong, wouldn’t it be on there?”

Tarlow said the government has shown no evidence that Myers believed the source of the funds to be drug trafficking: “It’s not illegal to pick up and drop off money in this country. Not yet at least.”

Petti and Silberman, 59, were arrested a week ago and are charged with conspiring to launder money and failure to report a currency transaction to the government. FBI agents encountered Silberman, who is married to San Diego County Supervisor Susan Golding and is a former close adviser to Brown, during a 2 1/2-year investigation of Petti, who allegedly is an associate of a Mafia crime family in Chicago.