LOS ANGELES : Man Gets 16 Months for Movie Extras Scam

A New York man was sentenced in Los Angeles on Thursday to 16 months in state prison for swindling would-be movie extras out of thousands of dollars in what the actors thought were union dues.

Rubin Malaret, 27, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court on May 17 to one count of grand theft and one count of forgery by telephone, prosecutors said. But Malaret is suspected of bilking hundreds of would-be extras around the country, investigators said.

Malaret, a former agent, used his voice-impersonation skills to pose in telephone conversations as production-company representatives, their secretaries and assistants and persuade his victims--all young male models--that he was looking for film extras, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Louis Ito. Malaret would then instruct them to join the Screen Actors Guild and wire him the union fees, which ranged from $200 to nearly $400, to various Western Union offices, Ito said.