Parker Gets 11-Year Term for S&L; Fraud : Courts: Newport Beach businessman also pleaded guilty to defrauding two banks and another thrift.

Newport Beach businessman Michael E. Parker was sentenced Monday to 11 years in federal prison for what prosecutors said was one of the biggest savings and loan frauds in Southern California.

U.S. District Judge Robert Takasugi also ordered Parker to pay the government back for the $11-million fraud he was convicted of perpetrating against the now defunct Columbia Savings & Loan Assn. of Beverly Hills.

Parker, whom prosecutors dubbed “the king of greed” and “a one-man crime wave,” has also pleaded guilty to defrauding two banks and another thrift of millions more. As president of Parker North American, an equipment lease-back company serving the banking industry, Parker was once a prominent Orange County businessman.

Prosecutors had asked for a prison sentence of nearly 20 years, quoting a government psychological evaluation that said Parker showed a “lack of remorse or guilt.”

Parker will have to serve at least nine years in prison, assuming he earns the maximum time off for good behavior.

The U.S. attorney’s office said it found that Parker had “personal property of sizable value that may be subject to forfeiture” to repay the $11 million he stole.

But, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Alejandro Mayorkas, “the government doesn’t expect to obtain 100 cents on the dollar.”

Prosecutors also have a claim on the house Parker owned in Newport Beach, which was sold for $1.8 million. But so much was owed on it that there was only $200,000 in equity left from the sale, said Mayorkas. The 45-year-old Parker broke into tears Monday as he asked Takasugi for leniency. He acknowledged making a series of “stupid” mistakes that started with padding orders and later included kickbacks for himself and banking executives.

“If I could reverse all those decisions, I would. Sorry is just a totally inadequate word,” Parker said. “One would have to be crazy not to be sorry. I’m not crazy, and I am sorry.”

Parker had asked for a five-year sentence, his lawyers arguing that the case essentially boiled down to tax fraud, not the money laundering and racketeering of which he was also convicted.

Parker was allowed to remain free and was ordered to report by Oct. 29 for prison. At Parker’s request, Takasugi agreed to recommend that he be imprisoned in a minimum-security facility at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, near where his family lives.

Parker had been free on $1 million bail since FBI agents arrested him early on the morning of Feb. 27, 1991, at his $1.8-million house behind the gates of the posh country club neighborhood of Big Canyon in Newport Beach.

Parker’s company, Parker North American Corp. in Costa Mesa, arranged for banks and thrifts to lease equipment, such as automated teller machines and office furniture.

It then sold the leases and the equipment to investors, usually other banks and thrifts. The deals also provided tax benefits for the investors.

Between 1983 and 1987, Parker sold $166 million worth of these leases to Columbia Savings & Loan, whose ads once boasted of how well-managed it was. Columbia failed in 1990 when the value of its huge investment in junk bonds plummeted.

Many of the leases Parker sold Columbia did not exist. In others, the value of the leased equipment was inflated.

Prosecutors asserted during the trial that Parker got $8 million--on which he did not pay taxes--from selling Columbia the phony leases.