Dennis Levine Accuser Finds Tables Turned : Litigation: Would-be Southern California developer Thomas Brechtel says the ex-kingpin of Wall Street duped him out of money. Now others say Brechtel duped them.

Some of Thomas Brechtel’s former colleagues and ex-friends could not believe what they were seeing on “60 Minutes” one recent Sunday evening.

The former Broadway salesclerk and would-be developer was telling CBS correspondent Ed Bradley how he and his brother-in-law were supposedly duped out of tens of thousands of dollars by Dennis B. Levine, the Wall Street inside trader who was promoting a book about his rehabilitation after prison.

Brechtel and Randy Jochim, a small home builder, went to Levine last year for help in financing an ocean-side luxury home development in Dana Point. Instead, they said, Levine, formerly an executive with Drexel Burnham Lambert, introduced them to a series of purported con men stretching from Las Vegas to Panama and then charged them a finder’s fee for the favor.

When the money failed to materialize, the Dana Point deal--seven homes selling for $1 million plus--was dead in the water.

Brechtel’s acquaintances weren’t that surprised by the failed deal, but they were floored that he would go public with his accusations. The reason: Brechtel is a defendant in several lawsuits that raise questions about his own business dealings.

“I couldn’t believe how Tom could sit up there and tell the world he got ripped off by this guy when he was doing this to me,” said Roberta Todrzak of the South Bay, who contends that Brechtel duped her out of $62,500, “and he has done this to other people.”

The Todrzak case is one of several that question Brechtel’s business dealings. Brechtel vigorously denies the accusations in the suits.

“None of this stuff is true,” he said. “The only thing I’ve done wrong is become a friend of Dennis Levine’s.”

“The Secret Life of Dennis Levine” on “60 Minutes” was part of a grander story about how Jochim, a former carpenter, and Brechtel, a salesman in the men’s clothing department at the Broadway for 12 years, hooked up with a Wall Street felon in a tragicomic attempt to develop one of the few remaining oceanfront properties on the Southern California coast.

“It was a long shot,” said an attorney close to the deal.

Nevertheless, Brechtel and Jochim have retained San Francisco lawyer Melvin Belli to represent them in a $20-million lawsuit against Levine. They have also consulted well-known Orange County publicist Peter Maddox to help them with follow-up stories in newspapers around the country.

“We’re small businessmen who had maybe saved up a little bit of money for our children’s education,” Brechtel said last month. “Then we encountered Dennis Levine, big-time New York mogul.”

Levine adamantly denies the accusations and says Brechtel and Jochim understood the risks of seeking money from unconventional lenders. In this case, Levine led them to a white-collar crook and a Las Vegas financier with purported ties to organized crime, according to the Brechtel-Jochim lawsuit.

“I said to them there is no guarantee here,” Levine said. “This is such a frivolous action. It’s a high-profile publicity stunt.”

From Sales to Law

Brechtel’s employment history has little to do with home building.

From 1975 through 1987, he worked as a salesman at the Broadway, according to store records. Brechtel, who graduated from law school but never passed the bar exam, also sold equipment to tanning salons. And in a 1988 sworn deposition, he said he did “immigration consulting” for some Greek citizens “who own a hamburger stand.”

Brechtel didn’t list his job as a clothing salesman on the resume he gave Levine.

“He worked in a Broadway store? I’m stunned,” said Levine. “He sold himself as a lawyer with real estate deal-making experience. . . . Tom did his own legal work (on the Dana Point property). I said, ‘This is a very legally complicated transaction, Tom.’ He said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m a lawyer.’ ”

Todrzak and one of Brechtel’s former business partners have testified under oath that they thought Brechtel was a lawyer.

Though Brechtel graduated from California Western School of Law in San Diego and once drove a Datsun 280ZX with the license plate LAW BIZ, he has three times failed to pass the California State Bar exam, according to a sworn statement by Brechtel.

“I’ve never told anyone I’m an attorney. I’m a graduate of law school,” Brechtel said. He added that “Ms. Todrzak and her ex-husband bought suits from me (at the Broadway), so that claim is unwarranted.”

Kevin McLean, one of Belli’s assistant attorneys, downplayed Brechtel’s lack of experience, saying, “Every successful person started somewhere, unless they inherited the money.”

Oddly enough, the same people who testified under oath that Brechtel told them he was a lawyer also said in depositions that they believed he was about to inherit a sizable trust fund from a wealthy uncle in New Orleans.

Brechtel denies that there was a trust fund or that he told anyone there was one.

Legal Problems

“I really can’t tell you how people think of these things,” he said.

Roberta Todrzak had just hired a private investigator to track down Brechtel when he suddenly appeared on her television screen.

Todrzak, who once lived with Brechtel and his wife, Linda, maintains that she gave Brechtel $90,000 of her money to hold in safekeeping until she could reclaim it after settlement of a contested divorce. Brechtel failed to return most of that money, according to a lawsuit she filed late last year in Los Angeles Superior Court.

After the “60 Minutes” broadcast, Todrzak began worrying that some of the money that went down a hole in Panama might be hers.

“I thought maybe some of my money was in the $200,000 they lost,” she said. “That was my money to get after my divorce was final so me and my daughter could start a new life. I was conned.”

Brechtel, who said he was unaware of the lawsuit, called it “a totally unwarranted claim.” He said Todrzak “spent all that money, and proof of that could be given.” He would not elaborate.

Now that Brechtel has gone on national TV, some of his former associates are redoubling efforts to retrieve money that they contend he took from them.

Joseph Oleson, Todrzak’s ex-husband, has reactivated a dormant lawsuit against Brechtel. In 1988, Oleson sued the Brechtels and Todrzak, alleging that as partners in an Upland tanning salon they had misappropriated more than $75,000 in company funds. The defendants in that case have denied the charges.

Fred Janz Realty in Diamond Bar is suing Brechtel in Los Angeles County Municipal Court for nearly $3,000 in back rent that it contends he owes for office space used in 1988 and 1989.

Back then, the Brechtels were selling tanning equipment and passive exercise machines under the name Future Tech. He had planned to start a car wash, according to a deposition, but that didn’t work out.

Janz’s leasing agent maintains that the Brechtels “moved out in the middle of the night.”

Brechtel said he is unaware of the Janz lawsuit and denies the allegations.

“We were on a month-to-month lease, and we left in the day, not in the middle of the night,” Brechtel said.

One reason that Brechtel is unaware of at least two lawsuits against him is because his opponents maintain that process servers cannot find him. His Coto de Caza home is in foreclosure and has been scheduled to be sold at public auction several times during the past few months.

He won’t disclose where he lives, except to say it’s in Orange County.

Ritz Cove II

Brechtel-Jochim Group was incorporated last year when the two men began searching for financing for their “Ritz Cove II” development in Dana Point.

Although only one of the two partners had significant homebuilding experience, and although the company’s Mission Viejo “executive office” is nothing more than a private post office box, a promotional brochure made grand claims:

“Today homes throughout Southern California give dramatic testimony to the uncompromising standards of design and quality that are hallmarks of homes by the Brechtel-Jochim Group.” It also states that the company “enjoys a degree of loyalty that is without precedent.”

Jochim, 37, and his wife, Ann, have built about half a dozen homes--ranging in price from $500,000 to $1 million--in the San Gabriel Valley, according to Ann Jochim. Jochim’s resume, provided to Levine, indicates that he has worked as a supervisor for Bostic Construction in Walnut and as a carpenter for W. C. Frolech in Buena Park.

Jochim, who got his contractor’s license last January, did not return several phone calls seeking comment.

Questioned about his role in building homes with Jochim, Brechtel, 33, said he was “a project manager” who is just “learning the trade. . . . I’m not a contractor.” He said sometimes his role on a job is “hammering nails.”

Levine said he sensed Brechtel was a bit green.

“Randy (Jochim) characterized himself as the builder of the two,” Levine said. “Tom (Brechtel) was the deal maker . . . Randy always appeared to me as a straight-shooter.”

Brechtel’s lack of experience didn’t stop him from trying to develop Ritz Cove II.

“I’ve seen plastic surgeons with no experience go out and build a home,” Brechtel said. “I don’t think it takes that much effort to go out there and schedule subcontractors.”

Levine Connection

Brechtel and Jochim might never have met Levine had it not been for a neighbor in Coto de Caza. Hearing that Brechtel needed financing, the neighbor recommended his cousin, Dennis Levine, for the job.

Five years ago, after making $12 million in illegal profits, Levine was convicted of trading stocks using illegal, non-public information. He assisted federal investigators in building a case against fellow traders Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken before spending 17 months in prison.

Shortly after being set free, Levine established a financial consulting firm in New York called the Adasar Group. Brechtel and Jochim, lacking the experience required by most major lenders for a project the size of Ritz Cove II, decided that Levine’s contacts in the financial world might help them raise the $32 million they needed.

The three men traveled to Panama City in April, 1990. There, they met with financiers at Morgan Gundy International and Pan-Global Securities Marketing Corp. at the Caesar Park Marriott Hotel.

Pan-Global agreed to provide Brechtel and Jochim $32 million in loans in exchange for an upfront fee of $49,500. But once the money was delivered, Pan Global reneged on the deal, according to the Brechtel-Jochim suit.

Levine is no stranger to high finance in low places. He set up two Swiss bank accounts in the Bahamas during the 1980s, one under the code name “Mr. Diamond” and the other under the guise of a Panamanian corporation he created. Those bank accounts were used to trade stocks on inside information he gleaned from friends and associates around Wall Street.

Once the Panamanian deals fell through for Brechtel and Jochim, Levine introduced them to shady financiers in Florida. Those contacts didn’t pan out either, costing the men precious time and money.

The Brechtel-Jochim suit now contends that the two men lost more than $400,000--twice the original estimate--and Levine took in more than $20,000 in finder’s fees.

Despite all his problems, Brechtel has hung on to his dreams.

“Given the money today, we could do the project and be very successful at it,” he said.