Four Get 505 Years in Prison : Courts: They were convicted of laundering more than $300 million in drug proceeds through downtown Los Angeles jewelry district.

A federal district court judge Wednesday meted out prison terms totaling 505 years to each of four men convicted of involvement in a money-laundering ring that funneled more than $300 million through the downtown Los Angeles jewelry district. A fifth defendant was given a 27-year term.

The five men were found guilty last year of numerous felonies in a case called “Operation Polar Cap,” one of the largest money-laundering investigations in U.S. history.

“The scale of the laundering operation is without parallel, both to the amount of money and planning that went into this. This was very sophisticated,” said U.S. District Judge William D. Keller. Keller handed down the 505-year terms to Raul Silvio Vivas of Argentina, brothers Nazareth and Vahe Andonian of La Crescenta and Juan Carlos Seresi of Sylmar. Ruben Saini of Sylmar received the lesser sentence. A $7.58-million fine was imposed on Vivas and penalties of $1.7 million apiece were imposed on the Andonian brothers. Keller imposed no fines on Seresi or Saini, citing their limited means.

“These are very dramatic sentences . . . 505 years has to be some kind of record for money laundering,” UCLA law professor Robert Garcia said.

He said the sentences reflected a change in attitudes about the significance of money laundering. Until recently, Garcia said, it was viewed as a technical crime, but now it is considered “an essential tool of drug dealers.”

The judge said several defendants had perjured themselves during the trial. He issued a sharp retort in response to pleas made in legal briefs for the defendants that their families would be harmed if they were imprisoned for a long time.

“There’s a genuine lack of concern for other families in this drug trafficking,” the judge said. “What about the other families that are broken? Thousands of them.”

Federal prosecutors persuaded jurors during a seven-month trial that the defendants, all owners or employees of downtown jewelry businesses, had used their businesses as fronts for the laundering of millions of dollars in drug proceeds under the guise of legitimate gold bullion transactions in 1987 and 1988.

Vivas and the Andonians each were found guilty of 25 felony counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy. Seresi was convicted on 20 felony counts of money laundering and one count of conspiracy. Saini was convicted of 22 felony counts and one count of conspiracy.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Jean A. Kawahara said: “I think the sentencing was appropriate. I hadn’t heard of a sentence like that but I hadn’t heard of a conspiracy like that either.”

The judge appeared to explain Saini’s comparatively small sentence in his comments that the defendant had no previous criminal record and appeared to be “a hard-working and good family man” before he became involved with the others.

The judge described Vivas as the mastermind of the laundering operation. Prosecutors introduced evidence during the trial that Vivas, an Argentine businessman, used a Uruguayan securities exchange firm as the center of an operation that laundered drug proceeds from New York, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami and other U.S. cities. Some of the defendants wired the laundered money to contacts in Montevideo, Uruguay, and Panama City, Panama, and the funds were used to export more cocaine to the United States.

The federal sentencing guidelines require judges to mete out prison terms according to a point system geared to the severity of the crimes and other factors, including whether the defendant had a managerial role in a criminal enterprise and the amount of money involved in the crime. When Keller added up the points for four of the five defendants on Tuesday, he indicated that the guidelines called for a life term.

However, the judge decided not to pronounce sentence until Wednesday after Jerry Newton, the attorney for Vahe Andonian, asserted that the guidelines were unconstitutional--at least as they applied to the money-laundering sentences. Newton argued that it would be illegal for the judge to impose life sentences because the maximum sentence for money laundering under federal law was 20 years.

Keller rejected this argument, agreeing with Kawahara that he had the ability to impose sentences long enough to ensure that four of the defendants remained in jail for life by imposing consecutive terms for their various felonies.

Newton said Keller’s sentences would be one of several bases on which he would appeal. Another defense lawyer, Stanley Greenberg, who represented Nazareth Andonian, also argued that the sentences were disproportionate to the crimes committed.

The money-laundering ring came to public light in February, 1989, when local police and agents from several federal agencies, including the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, Customs Service and the Internal Revenue Service, swept through the jewelry district.

Ultimately, 17 people were indicted in what came to be known as “the Andonian case.” Five were convicted, three pleaded guilty, four were acquitted and five had charges dismissed.

Charges are still pending against 10 other defendants accused of laundering hundreds of millions of drug money through another downtown jewelry company. Sentencing is pending for four other individuals who pleaded guilty to money-laundering charges in a related case.