San Diego

Two leaders of a purchasing scam that authorities say cheated the San Diego Unified Port District out of at least $700,000 have pleaded guilty to charges that could lead to eight-year prison terms.

Rudi Michael Enriques, 37, and Paul Robert Manes, 48, pleaded guilty Thursday to five counts of grand theft, one count of attempted grand theft, one count of appropriating public funds and one count of conspiracy to defraud. Other charges against the pair were dismissed.

Prosecutors say that Enriques, a meter repairman in the Port District’s purchasing department, and Manes, manager of an auto parts store, were two of the masterminds of the fraud to which three other defendants have already pleaded guilty.

Another alleged ringleader, former Port District purchasing director Richard Miles Cersosimo, 48, has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to stand trial next week.

Authorities say that from January, 1986, to July, 1987, the men were involved in a scam that used a blizzard of phony and altered business documents to cover up illegal purchases that were paid for with Port District funds.

The Port District paid for goods and services allegedly received by the men, who had billed them to the auto parts store. The store, using falsified documents, billed the Port District, adding on a bogus 67% markup, authorities have said.

High cost individual purchases were allegedly “laundered” through the Port District’s purchasing system, by way of a series of low-cost invoices, each of which were kept below $250, thus allowing them to be routinely paid without question.

Port District officials have changed the system to prevent a repeat of the scam.