Man Infiltrated Mob for FBI, Agent Says : Courts: Testimony affirms assertions of former commodities broker who was a major contributor to political campaigns.

An FBI agent confirmed in court Friday that a Beverly Hills commodities broker who was a major campaign contributor to prominent politicians had infiltrated the New York mob on the bureau’s behalf and was marked for death as a result.

The testimony in the Van Nuys Superior Court fraud trial of Mark R. Weinberg, 37, was the first time the FBI had corroborated the defendant’s claim--repeated in newspaper articles--that he had risked his life by volunteering to infiltrate the Genovese crime family.

Weinberg emerged as a leading political contributor in the mid-1980s, at the same time he traded futures for Matthew (Matty the Horse) Ianello, Anthony (Fat Tony) Salerno and other Genovese family members.

In 1984 and 1985, Weinberg donated $256,000 to Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner’s campaign, $84,000 to Mayor Tom Bradley’s campaign and $54,000 to Sen. Alan Cranston’s campaign. He also held a reception at his home for Democratic presidential candidate Walter F. Mondale.

Reiner, who had unsuccessfully sought to avoid testifying in the case, said in court Tuesday that he and Weinberg socialized, along with their wives, in 1984 and went to the Olympics together. He said he broke off contact with Weinberg in July, 1985, on learning that Weinberg was the subject of a criminal investigation. No charges were filed.

The district attorney was not asked in court for details about the 1985 investigation and refused to provide any information outside the courtroom.

Bradley and Cranston also have been subpoenaed to testify for Weinberg. They have said they broke off contract with Weinberg in 1985.

Special Agent Robert M. Hamer testified for the defense Friday in Weinberg’s trial on charges of bilking investors in the late 1980s.

The agent confirmed the broad outlines of Weinberg’s asserted association with the FBI in 1983 and 1984, and also said Weinberg had been an informant for the bureau as recently as 1989.

Hamer was not asked whether Weinberg’s more recent work involved mob activities, and he refused to be interviewed outside court.

Weinberg voluntarily approached FBI agents in October, 1983, and offered to make contact with mobsters on the bureau’s behalf, Hamer said.

He also confirmed Weinberg’s assertion that he had no legal problems with the government at the time and therefore was not seeking to curry favor with federal officials.

The agent said Weinberg called the FBI’s organized crime division in Los Angeles and complained that he had “$5 million to $10 million in Genovese family money in his accounts and had not heard from a caseworker in three months.”

Weinberg was told in December, 1984, to break off his mob contacts, Hamer said, because the FBI was not realizing its goal of luring organized crime money into the open, then seizing it.

“We found we were unable to trace the source of these funds (from Genovese family members), so we couldn’t prove the money had been gathered through crime” and therefore could not confiscate it, the agent said.

Hamer also confirmed that in 1985, FBI agents notified Weinberg that the bureau’s phone taps indicated that Genovese family members were planning to kill him.

Hamer’s testimony Friday was outside the presence of the jury. Judge John S. Fisher said he would decide next week whether it was relevant enough to let jurors hear the agent testify.

In news interviews over the last seven years, Weinberg has bitterly attacked the FBI for refusing to admit that he was working for the bureau when he lured mobsters to his brokerage business, then taped conversations with them.

Before Hamer testified, the judge warned Weinberg that the agent’s testimony could put the defendant’s life at risk.

Weinberg, who is representing himself, retorted: “It’s either take my best shot or 10 years” in prison, the maximum sentence he faces if convicted on four counts of grand theft and eight of writing bad checks.

He also said that if mobsters were going to kill him, “they would have whacked me by now.”

Weinberg called Hamer to the stand in hopes of showing that he lost his license to trade domestic commodities in 1985, when federal securities officials discovered that he had mobsters for clients.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Tricia Ann Bigelow, who is prosecuting the case and is seeking to bar the FBI agent’s testimony, said federal records indicate that the license was suspended because Weinberg, without FBI approval, used phony documents to lure crime family members to his brokerage firm.

Because prosecution witnesses testified that Weinberg’s license was lifted in 1985, he contends that he should be allowed to show the circumstances behind the revocation, including his work for the FBI.

In the fraud trial, Weinberg is accused of stealing more than $1 million from wealthy investors through phony investment schemes.

Alleged victims include James Aubrey, former president of CBS. Weinberg said that the losses resulted from business reversals and that he was working to repay all investors when he was charged.