Ex-Columbia Executive Pleads Guilty to 2 Charges : Crime: With Jeffrey Worthy out of the way, only Newport businessman Michael Parker is left to stand trial in thrift case.

Jeffrey S. Worthy pleaded guilty to federal charges of racketeering and tax evasion Tuesday, leaving only Newport Beach businessman Michael E. Parker to face trial in what prosecutors said was an $11-million rip-off of Columbia Savings & Loan Assn.

Prosecutors said Worthy, 34, a former Columbia vice president, admitted accepting nearly $1.4 million in kickbacks from Parker in return for persuading the savings and loan to buy tax-shelter investments from Parker.

The illegal commissions amounted to 1% of the investments Parker sold to Beverly Hills-based Columbia between 1985 and 1987, prosecutors said.

Some of those investments turned out to be phony or inflated, according to prosecutors. Parker is accused of diverting more than $11 million of Columbia’s money to himself and others in what prosecutors have called one of the largest thrift-fraud cases in Southern California.

Prosecutors would not say whether Worthy has agreed to testify against Parker at Parker’s Jan. 9 trial in federal court. However, Worthy’s sentencing was delayed from January until March 23, well after the Parker trial.

Worthy also pleaded guilty Tuesday to one charge of evading $123,000 in income taxes in 1985 by concealing some of the income derived from kickbacks. In return for his plea on the two counts, prosecutors agreed to drop 41 others.

Worthy, who was also Columbia’s director of financial planning, faces a maximum sentence of 25 years, a $500,000 fine and restitution payments of $1.4 million.

The Downey resident has already forfeited $300,000 in assets as partial restitution, including a house in Downey and a condominium in Lake Havasu City, Ariz.

Worthy’s lawyer declined to discuss Worthy’s deal with the government but said that his client had agreed to repay the entire $1.4 million.

“You have to remember that Jeff was in his 20s when all this happened, a young man with a lot of responsibility,” said the lawyer, Robert L. Clarkson of Los Angeles. “He displayed some very bad judgment, which he deeply regrets. And he’s agreed to make restitution for the entire amount.”

For reasons unrelated to the alleged fraud, Columbia has since been seized by federal regulators. The thrift had been a big investor in junk bonds when that market went sour.

Parker was chairman of a company called Parker North American Corp. in Newport Beach, which bought equipment from banks and thrifts and then leased it back to them. Parker North American then sold these leases as tax shelters to Columbia and other companies. But in Columbia’s case, prosecutors contend, millions of dollars’ worth of the tax shelters were bogus or their worth was vastly inflated.

Parker, 43, a flashy entrepreneur known for his lavish lifestyle and prominent political and charitable contributions, is charged with 49 counts of racketeering, tax fraud, money laundering, paying kickbacks and bank fraud.

Parker resigned when Parker North American went into bankruptcy several years ago. Until recently, he also ran a second company, Parker Automotive Corp. in Costa Mesa, which filed for bankruptcy this year amid allegations that the maker of engine-cleaning equipment exaggerated sales in order to attract investors.

A lawyer for Parker, Thomas E. Holliday of Los Angeles, said his client affirms his innocence and intends to go to trial in January.

Another former Columbia executive, Chief Financial Officer Gilbert Fuentes of San Diego, was convicted of tax evasion in June for failing to report $200,000 paid to him, allegedly by Parker.

And Brian W. Fink of Orange, a former Parker North American vice president, agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts in April. He was accused of taking $1 million from Parker to falsify tax-shelter documents. He is is also expected to testify against Parker before being sentenced.