Petti Guilty of Assisting Silberman : Courts: A judge says the reputed mobster was a central figure in the money-laundering case, even though he was essentially a ‘pawn.’

Reputed mobster Chris Petti was convicted Tuesday in federal court of six felony counts for his role as a “pawn” in a money-laundering scheme directed by San Diego financier Richard T. Silberman.

U.S. District Judge J. Lawrence Irving, who heard the case without a jury, found Petti guilty without hesitation as soon as closing arguments in the case concluded.

He said that Petti was “for the most part a pawn” of Silberman, who directed a scheme to launder $300,000 portrayed by an undercover FBI agent as Colombian cocaine profits.

Petti introduced Silberman to the agent and did not know all the details of the scheme, but nevertheless was a central figure in the conspiracy, Irving said. “In for a penny, in for a pound,” Irving told Petti in announcing judgment. “That’s the position I believe you find yourself in today.”

Petti, 63, showed no emotion as Irving announced he was guilty on each of the six counts. He declined to comment on the decision.

Defense lawyer Oscar Goodman said Petti would appeal the verdict. “I guess I deluded myself, listening to too many people who told me we were winning,” Goodman said.

Petti, Silberman and three other men charged in the scheme have each been convicted of felony charges. Petti, however, who could draw up to 75 years in prison, stands to receive the harshest sentence and almost certainly more than Silberman’s term.

Silberman, 61, once a top aide to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., was sentenced last month to 46 months in federal prison and fined $50,000 for his role in the plot.

He was convicted June 28, after a two-month trial, of a technical currency violation. On Aug. 24, he pleaded guilty under a plea bargain to a felony conspiracy count, averting a second trial.

The three others each pleaded guilty in the past few months to a sole felony count apiece.

Though Petti could face up to 75 years in prison, he is more likely to be sentenced under new federal guidelines to eight years or less, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles F. Gorder Jr., the lead prosecutor in the case.

Irving set sentencing for Dec. 17. Petti, reputed to be connected to organized crime in Chicago and Las Vegas, remains free on $250,000 bail.

Irving said he was especially careful in the case not to try Petti on his reputation alone. “I have been more careful to try this case on the basis of the evidence presented in court than any other case I have tried” in eight years on the bench, Irving said.

But the evidence, Irving said, made it plain that Petti was guilty of a sole count of conspiring to launder money, two counts of money laundering and three counts detailing violations of federal currency regulations.

Initially, expecting a finder’s fee, Petti introduced Silberman to undercover agent Peter J. Ahearn, who was posing as Pete Carmassi, a front man for Colombian drug lords, Gorder said.

Silberman and Ahearn went on to conduct two laundering deals. The first, in November, 1988, was a swap of $100,000 for stock in a Silberman gold-mining subsidiary. The second, in February, 1989, was an exchange of $200,000 for U.S. Treasury bonds.

As the scheme developed, acording to Gorder, Petti made sure Ahearn knew how to contact Silberman, even when the financier was overseas, oversaw the first deal and served as an “enforcer” when the bonds in the second deal proved to be worth far less than Silberman had expected.

There was not enough evidence, however, to prove that Petti pocketed $4,000, as prosecutors had alleged, on the second deal, Irving said. He declined to order Petti to forfeit that amount in cash to the government, clearing Petti of the seventh and final charge in the case.