Income of Nathanson Investigated : Ethics: Grand jury subpoenas records on coastal commissioner’s work for an airline. His lawyer denies any wrongdoing.

A Los Angeles County grand jury has subpoenaed records to determine whether Mark L. Nathanson, a controversial member of the California Coastal Commission, failed to report about $150,000 he received as a lobbyist-consultant for a luxury-class airline, The Times has learned.

The grand jury last Friday sought documents listing payments that Nathanson received from MGM Grand Air but which he did not report in state-required financial disclosure statements, signed under penalty of perjury, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

Nathanson remains the target of a separate, Sacramento-based federal investigation into allegations that he used his state office to extort money from a number of people, including Hollywood stars and executives, seeking permits for seaside homes from the Coastal Commission.

In a sworn statement, one of those executives, producer-agent Sandy Gallin, has acknowledged paying Nathanson for advice on how to obtain permits on his Malibu properties. Gallin said that one payment--in connection with his house on Malibu’s Point Dume--was for $25,000.

Nathanson’s lawyer, Robert L. Shapiro, said Monday that his client has done nothing wrong.

The two investigations appear to be focusing on different aspects of Nathanson’s conduct while serving on the coastal panel, which oversees development along the state’s 1,100-mile shoreline.

Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner’s office, already investigating Nathanson’s role in two property developments, is conducting the inquiry into the airline payments.

K. Eugene Shutler, executive vice president and general counsel of MGM Grand Inc., said that last Friday the company received a county grand jury subpoena for “records relating to our relationship with Mr. Nathanson.”

A source familiar with the subpoena said the grand jury is seeking Nathanson’s tax withholding statements, travel records and correspondence between MGM and the Coastal Commission.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Gail Ehrlich, who is directing the investigation for Reiner, declined comment Monday on any grand jury action in the case.

In an article on Nathanson’s business activities, The Times reported last month that Nathanson was hired in 1987 to help billionaire Kirk Kerkorian’s MGM Grand Air market the new airline’s coast-to-coast service and negotiate airport gate leases in Los Angeles and New York. Terry Christensen, a director of MGM Grand Inc., the airline’s parent company, said that MGM Air paid Nathanson almost $150,000 when he helped negotiate the gate leases and about $2,000 a year for serving on its board of directors. He left the MGM Grand Air board last December.

The California Political Reform Act generally requires coastal commissioners to report income and loans of $250 or more on annual economic disclosure statements. Deliberately withholding required information can be punished as perjury, but under one provision of state law, coastal commissioners need only reveal income from those doing business within the agency’s jurisdiction. It is unclear how prosecutors might apply the law to Nathanson.

Shapiro said his client “has made full disclosure of outside income as required by law and if there are any errors in reporting it is due to inadvertence and oversight.”

Meanwhile, a federal grand jury is continuing its investigation of allegations that Nathanson attempted to extort as much as $50,000 from such entertainment industry figures as Sylvester Stallone, former Fox Inc. Chairman Barry Diller and agent-producer Gallin, whose clients include superstar Michael Jackson.

Stallone and Diller made no payments to Nathanson, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

In a sworn statement, unconnected to the criminal investigations, Gallin has said that he personally paid Nathanson on several occasions as a consultant when he purchased beach property, including $25,000 for his help on the Point Dume house.

Gallin has refused to comment.

Nathanson, a real estate broker, has not reported receiving any income from Gallin on annual economic disclosure statements. However, the Coastal Commission has yet to receive Nathanson’s statement for 1991, which were due March 2.

In 1986, the state Fair Political Practices Commission fined Nathanson $13,400 for failing to disclose fully his financial interests while he served on the state Little Hoover Commission.