Man to Be Confined to His Home for Role in Fraud : Sentencing: Erwin H. Muller also must pay $90,000 in restitution and a $100,000 fine. The scheme victimized the Point Mugu naval base and Unocal.

A Camarillo businessman was given a suspended five-year prison sentence Monday and ordered confined to his home for six months for his role in a purchasing scheme that defrauded the Point Mugu Naval Air Weapons Station and Unocal Corp.

A federal judge in Los Angeles also ordered Erwin H. Muller, 49, to pay a $100,000 fine and make $90,000 in restitution to the government.

U.S. District Judge William M. Byrne Jr. told Muller during his sentencing hearing that the court’s order confining him to his home would be enforced through use of an electronic monitoring device attached to his body.

In October, Muller and two other defendants pleaded guilty to participating in a conspiracy to defraud the Navy base and Unocal.

A second defendant, Martin S. Anderson, 44, former president of now defunct Anderson Industrial Supply of Oxnard, is scheduled to be sentenced next Monday. Muller worked through Anderson’s company in the fraud scheme.

The third defendant, Bill M. Frazier, 45, of Camarillo, has been cooperating with the government in its investigation of purchasing practices at Point Mugu, investigators said. He is not expected to be sentenced until the investigation is completed.

According to investigators and court papers, beginning in April, 1983, and continuing into 1989, Frazier, Anderson and Muller received payments from the Navy base and Unocal for the delivery of nonexistent industrial merchandise. False invoices were created to cover up the scheme, court papers said.

Illegal kickbacks in connection with the fraud were made to some civilian purchasing agents on the Navy base, according to investigators and court documents.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Patricia A. Beaman, who is supervising the investigation, said Monday that she expects new indictments “in the near future.”

At the sentencing hearing, Beaman estimated that the total cost of the fraud was almost $1.5 million--about $1 million involving Unocal and $536,000 for the Navy.

The Unocal phase of the federal investigation, involving the firm’s oil platform operations off Ventura County, is closed. But investigators believe the ongoing Point Mugu inquiry could reveal the cost of the fraud scheme to the Navy as more than $1 million.

A spokesman for the base, Harry Lee, said there would be no comment from the military while the fraud investigation continues.

Muller pleaded guilty to two counts--conspiracy to defraud the government and income tax evasion.

Beaman told the court that Muller not only admitted his involvement in the scheme but was cooperating with the government.

Byrne said that although the government concluded that Muller was the least culpable of the three defendants, the charges to which he pleaded guilty were serious.