Broker Is Given the Maximum Prison Term in $900,000 Fraud : Courts: Mark R. Weinberg, who contributed large sums to Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner and others, gets nearly nine years.
A former commodities broker--whose once-close ties to Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner forced the state attorney general’s office to take over prosecution of the case--was sentenced Friday to nearly nine years in prison for defrauding clients of nearly $900,000.
Van Nuys Superior Court Judge John Fisher sentenced Mark R. Weinberg, 38, to the maximum term of 8 years and 8 months on two counts of grand theft and three counts of writing bad checks. Fisher said he had been moved by a letter to a local newspaper suggesting that minority looters are likely to get stiff sentences while white-collar criminals usually get off lightly.
“There is absolutely no excuse for someone with the intelligence of the defendant . . . other than criminal intent,” Fisher said.
Deputy Atty. Gen. Tricia Ann Bigelow said she was extremely pleased with the sentence. “This court takes seriously white-collar offenses,” Bigelow said. “That’s the right attitude.”
Bigelow said Weinberg has defrauded at least 25 people and corporations of more than $40 million. He has been ordered to repay more than half of that amount in civil court judgments. Weinberg has repaid some of it, but said he is broke and has lost his house.
While Weinberg was convicted on the five fraud charges in March, he was acquitted of five similar counts and the jury deadlocked on two other counts. Weinberg faces a second trial involving 13 counts of fraud, including the two counts in which a mistrial was declared.
Fisher commended Bigelow for quickly taking over the case from the district attorney’s office after he had ruled that there was a conflict of interest because Weinberg contributed nearly $250,000 to Reiner’s 1984 campaign. Fisher also praised police Detective Steve James for doggedly pursuing the case even after the district attorney’s office initially refused to file charges against Weinberg.
“The public should be grateful for that,” Fisher said.
But without naming specific people, Fisher also chastised politicians for readily accepting contributions that could place them in conflict-of-interest situations. He criticized the FBI for both investigating and using Weinberg as an operative.
In addition to contributing to Reiner, Weinberg gave $84,000 to Mayor Tom Bradley’s 1985 campaign and $54,000 to U.S. Sen. Alan Cranston.
According to testimony by FBI agents, in 1984 and 1985 while he was making the political donations, Weinberg infiltrated organized crime on behalf of the FBI. At one point, Weinberg invested up to $10 million in funds from the Genovese crime family in New York through his brokerage firm when he traded commodities.
At the same time, the FBI was investigating Weinberg on possible federal fraud charges, but Bigelow said Friday that the government did not plan to file any charges.
The charges against Weinberg in Van Nuys Superior Court focused on activities from 1988 to 1990, when police say Weinberg passed bad checks and obtained personal loans under false pretenses from wealthy investors to finance his failing efforts to produce television variety and talk shows.
Victims included John Paul Jones De Joria, president of a Santa Clarita-based hair products company; Susan Aubrey, daughter of former CBS President James Aubrey, and Dale Tittlemier, a Palmdale developer. The three loaned Weinberg a combined $877,000 at 25% interest.
When they demanded their money back, Weinberg gave them checks that bounced.
Weinberg used part of that money to gamble in Las Vegas, where he lost more than $500,000, police said.
In a letter to the court, De Joria said Weinberg stole the dreams of many people, and that Weinberg should be sentenced to prison “to stop others from doing the same.”
