Robbins Group Paid Nathanson $1 Million in Deal, Agent Says : Inquiry: Affidavit indicates that the former coastal commissioner brokered land sale and played a key role in the panel’s decision to attempt to block a rival project.

A partnership led by former state Sen. Alan Robbins paid former California Coastal Commissioner Mark L. Nathanson $1 million to broker the sale of land needed for the Channel Gateway housing and office complex in Venice, according to a recently unsealed court document.

In 1990, less than a year after Nathanson received the money, he played a key role in the commission’s decision to attempt to block the rival Marina Place project in nearby Culver City, said the document, a sworn affidavit by FBI Special Agent James J. Wedick Jr. made public in connection with a federal prosecution of Nathanson.

Robbins, a Van Nuys Democrat, resigned his office last year and agreed to plead guilty to federal racketeering and tax-evasion charges.

In May, a federal grand jury in Sacramento indicted Nathanson on eight felony counts, charging him with attempting to extort thousands of dollars from businessmen and such Hollywood figures as Sylvester Stallone, who were seeking Coastal Commission permits for Malibu property.

Nathanson, a Beverly Hills real estate broker, submitted his resignation from the coastal panel earlier in the year when his indictment appeared imminent. He has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial next February.

The investigation of Nathanson grew out of a political-corruption probe of Robbins, who is cooperating with federal authorities and last month began serving a five-year sentence in the federal prison camp at Lompoc. He is expected to testify in federal court against Nathanson.

Besides the federal inquiry, Nathanson has been the target of a Los Angeles County grand jury investigation into whether he had hidden financial interests or motives when he urged the commission to join a lawsuit to block Marina Place, a $160-million regional shopping mall proposed near Washington and Lincoln boulevards at Culver City’s western tip, a site just outside the Coastal Commission’s jurisdiction.

However, last month, the county investigation was suspended by Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner, in part to avoid any overlap with the federal case.

Wedick’s sworn affidavit was used to justify a search of Nathanson’s home in November, 1990, in which agents sought a variety of documents, including material on Channel Gateway and Robbins’ Marina East Holding Partnership.

The affidavit discloses for the first time the exact amount of money Nathanson received from Marina East in the sale of the land that became the Channel Gateway project, a $400-million residential and commercial development now under construction along Lincoln Boulevard in Venice.

Wedick’s statement shows that the Robbins partnership paid Nathanson the $1 million in three separate checks drawn on an account at Santa Monica Bank. The final payment, dated July 14, 1989, was for $650,000.

In the financial-disclosure statement he was required to file annually as a coastal commissioner, Nathanson previously reported receiving more than $10,000 in 1989 “in commission income from brokers services” from the Robbins partnership. State reports require public officials to report income only in broad categories.

Stephen L. Braga, Nathanson’s lawyer, described the $1-million payment for Channel Gateway as “Mark’s fee for acting as a broker/mediator in the sale of the property” and noted that the federal grand jury did not indict Nathanson on charges related to the sale of property by Marina East Holding Partnership to developer Jerome H. Snyder.

Braga speculated that federal investigators had “looked at every payment from Robbins to Nathanson, and $1 million in particular is a large amount.” He said the fee for the Channel Gateway property was a legitimate business transaction.

Snyder and his partners in 1989 bought a majority interest in the 16-acre Channel Gateway site from Marina East for $45 million. Robbins’ partnership retained “a greater than 10% interest in the project,” according to Wedick’s statement.

Last year, Robbins’ Marina East Holding Partnership filed for bankruptcy, listing $7.6 million in debts to banks, lawyers and developers. At the time, Marina East owed Snyder and one of his partners $2.5 million.

The affidavit also discloses that Coastal Commission Executive Director Peter Douglas was interviewed by the FBI about Nathanson’s activities on the commission, including his role in the Marina Place decision. During Nathanson’s six years on the commission, he at times clashed with Douglas on issues of policy and style.

Douglas was on vacation this week and could not be reached for comment, but James Burns, the commission’s chief deputy director, said FBI agents approached Douglas, who responded to their requests for information.

At one point, Wedick quotes Douglas about the commission’s controversial decision to join litigation that would have blocked construction of Marina Place.

“Douglas thought Nathanson was the key member who convinced other commissioners on the Coastal Commission to agree to participate in the suit,” Wedick said in his affidavit.

Culver City officials had tried to prevent Nathanson from voting on the litigation. City Council member Jozelle Smith has said that even though the state never intervened in the lawsuit to block Marina Place, the threat of intervention lent weight to the suit and helped delay the project. Plans for Marina Place have been on hold for two years, pending the outcome of two lawsuits.