Silberman Sentenced in Money-Laundering Case : Crime: Gov. Brown’s former chief of staff gets 46 months. Prosecutors have also asked for a $75,000 fine.

Richard T. Silberman, once a prominent financier and top California Democrat, was sentenced Monday to 46 months in prison and an unspecified fine for his role in a money-laundering scheme.

The chief of staff to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. was sentenced three months after he was convicted in federal court of a single money-laundering count and one month after he pleaded guilty to a second count under an agreement reached with prosecutors.

U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving accepted the government’s recommendation for the 46-month prison term. But the judge said he would postpone a decision on imposing a fine until he has had more time to review defense financial statements.

Silberman’s wife, San Diego County Supervisor Susan Golding, was in the courtroom.

The sentence was passed just nine days before trial is scheduled to begin for reputed mobster Chris Petti, the most notorious of Silberman’s four co-defendants. Silberman’s plea agreement does not require him to testify against Petti.

Under federal sentencing guidelines, Irving could have given Silberman, 61, a maximum of 15 years in prison and a $75,000 fine.

But in a memorandum filed Friday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Gorder recommended a prison term of 46 months. However, he did ask for the maximum fine of $75,000.

Gorder submitted Swiss bank documents to demonstrate that Silberman made a $77,500 profit from a single money-laundering transaction in November, 1988.

But a motion filed by defense attorney James Brosnahan argued that Silberman could not pay a large fine because he “is already ruined financially, both in terms of his existing assets and his earning capacity.”

Silberman, a co-founder of the Jack in the Box fast food chain, originally was charged with seven counts of money laundering. Six of the counts were left to the jury to decide and Irving was to decide the seventh.

On June 29, one day after finding Silberman guilty on a single count of violating currency reporting transaction laws, the federal jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked on the other five charges. Irving declared a mistrial.

A lone juror had held out for acquittal in the belief that Silberman did not realize he was involved in a scheme to launder drug money. When he later pleaded guilty to a count of conspiracy to violate reporting laws, he admitted he knowingly endeavored to launder what he thought were drug proceeds.

Silberman and his co-defendants were arrested April 7, 1989, after a 20-month FBI sting operation in which an undercover agent posed as a representative of Colombian drug lords looking to launder $300,000 in narcotics proceeds.

Co-defendant Jack Myers, the former son-in-law of MCA chairman Lew Wasserman, subsequently pleaded guilty to lesser charges, as did Los Angeles investment broker Terry Ziegler.

Petti, the original target of the FBI sting, will stand trial next week, along with Los Angeles businessman Darryl Nakatsuka.

According to an FBI report released Feb. 16, Silberman told the agents who arrested him that he knowingly laundered money and regretted it. The report said Silberman offered to provide information on other prominent individuals engaged in money laundering if the government would drop charges against him.