VAN NUYS : Businessman Gets 2 Years in Perjury Case

A wealthy Van Nuys businessman who owned a shopping center was sentenced Monday to two years in state prison for filing two court documents that stated he was too poor to pay $48 to file a lawsuit.

Van Nuys Superior Court Judge Darlene Schempp also ordered Amnon Charash, 49, to pay a $10,000 fine.

“It was ludicrous in light of your wealth and financial condition,” Schempp said after Charash pleaded for mercy.

Charash was convicted last month of two counts of perjury for filing fee waiver applications in Van Nuys Municipal Court that incorrectly stated his wealth.

On the first application, filed in October, 1988, he stated that he could only afford “one simple meal a day,” even though he claimed in a loan application filed the next year that his net worth was well over $500,000.

Charash was also convicted of altering a court file by adding three pages to a motion that had already been filed in a civil lawsuit against his former attorney.

“He is a cheat and he has no concept of what truth and honesty mean,” Schempp said.

After the sentence was imposed, one of Charash’s sons yelled “inhuman” and cursed the court as his father was being led away by marshals.

Charash asked Schempp for leniency during a brief address to the court.

“Your honor, standing before you is a broken man,” he said. “I cannot tell you how sorry I am for what I have done. I wish I could turn back the clock.”

“I bet you do,” Schempp replied.

The judge also refused Charash’s plea for a new trial and for bail to be set while his appeal is being heard.

“You have shown absolutely no remorse other than to feel sorry for yourself,” Schempp said.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Robert Schuit told the judge that Charash had filed four other fee waivers in Superior Court and said Charash committed perjury during his trial when he denied on the witness stand that he had submitted the loan application that listed his wealth.