S&L; Swindle Nets Parker 11-Year Prison Sentence : Crime: Court also orders once-flamboyant Newport Beach businessman to repay $11 million he stole.

Former 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 Court Judge Robert M. Takasugi also ordered Parker to pay back the $11 million he was convicted of stealing from Columbia Savings and 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.

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.”

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

Parker will have to serve at least 9 1/2 years in prison, assuming he earns the maximum time off for good behavior.

Though Parker has declared bankruptcy, the U.S. attorney’s office said Monday that it has found property “of sizable value that may be subject to forfeiture” in order to repay the $11 million.

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

Prosecutors also have a claim on the house Parker owned in Newport Beach, which has been sold for $1.8 million. But so much was owed on it that there was only $200,000 in equity left after the sale, Mayorkas said.

Parker, 45, 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 to a thrift executive.

“If I could reverse all those decisions, I would,” he said. “ ‘Sorry’ is just a totally inadequate word.

“One would have to be crazy not to be sorry. I’m not crazy, and I am sorry.”

Later in the hearing, Parker showed no emotion as he stood to hear Takasugi read the sentence. Dressed in a blue blazer and tan pants, Parker hugged his wife after the sentence was handed down and left the courtroom without commenting further.

The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Holscher, said Parker “certainly deserves” the sentence. “He committed four separate large-scale fraud schemes.”

Parker, who has been out on $1-million bail since his arrest by FBI agents more than 2 1/2 years ago, was allowed to remain free until he reports to prison later this month.

At Parker’s request, Takasugi agreed to recommend that he serve his time in a minimum-security prison at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas. That is near the town of Henderson, where Parker, his wife and two young children now live.

Parker was arrested on Feb. 27, 1991, at his home in the 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 those leases to Columbia Savings and 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 to 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 any taxes--from selling Columbia the phony leases. The other $3 million was either kicked back to a Columbia executive or went to one of Parker’s employees, both of whom have already pleaded guilty.

Once a lavish donor to charity and the Republican Party, the flamboyant Parker cut a swath through Newport Beach society in the late 1980s.

That had all ended long before a three-week trial in April, when a jury convicted him on 36 of 39 counts. The charges included paying kickbacks; racketeering; conspiracy; mail fraud; bank fraud; money laundering; evading personal taxes. And because Columbia Savings thought it was investing in legitimate tax shelters, Parker was also convicted of causing the thrift to unwittingly take what federal regulators estimated were millions of dollars worth of phony tax breaks.

In August, Parker also admitted defrauding First Interstate Bank of Nevada in Las Vegas, which had lent Parker North American nearly $8 million; swindling Sooner Federal Savings and Loan Assn. in Tulsa, Okla., in a $10-million lease deal; and lying to Home Bank in Signal Hill in order to get a $2-million credit line for Parker’s other company, Parker Automotive Corp., which made engine cleaners for cars and trucks.

In return for pleading guilty, Parker will get no additional prison time for those crimes.

Parker North American and Parker Automotive have since filed for bankruptcy, leaving a thicket of lawsuits that may take years to untangle.

Parker’s Trail to Jail

1991

* Arrested, Feb. 27: A yearlong federal investigation leads to the arrest of Michael E. Parker, founder of Parker North American Corp., and Jeffrey S. Worthy, a Columbia Savings & loan vice president, on charges that they bilked a Beverly Hills thrift of more than $11 million from 1983 to 1987.

Worthy is released on bail while Parker, declared a flight risk, remains in custody. A third suspect, Brian W. Fink, a former PNA vice president, waives indictment and is not arrested.

The Federal Office of Thrift Supervision announces that it will seek $25 million in restitution on behalf of the defunct thrift from Parker, Worthy and Fink.

* Pleads not guilty, March 4: Parker pleads not guilty to 46 counts of racketeering, money-laundering, paying and receiving kickbacks, bank and tax fraud. Worthy pleads not guilty to similar charges.

* Released, March 22: Parker is released on $1 million bond.

* Fink plea bargains, April 22: Fink pleads guilty to two felony charges in return for prosecutors’ filing no additional charges against him.

* Worthy plea bargains, Nov. 5: Worthy pleads guilty to two charges in an arrangement similar to Fink’s.

1993

* Indicted in Nevada, Feb. 19: Parker is indicted in Las Vegas for defrauding First Interstate Bank of Nevada of nearly $8 million in a similar scheme. He pleads not guilty.

* Trial begins, March 17: Testimony opens in Parker’s trial in the Columbia case. Counts against him are reduced from 46 to 39.

* Parker testifies, April 14: Admits he participated in kickback scheme with thrift executives but did not think it was illegal.

* Verdict reached, April 28: A jury finds Parker guilty on 36 of 39 counts.

* Pleads guilty to other charges, Aug. 23: In a similar case, Parker pleads guilty to frauds totaling $19 million against financial institutions in California, Nevada and Oklahoma. In exchange for his plea, Parker will serve no additional time for these charges, which carry a maximum sentence of 90 years in prison and $3 million in fines.

* The sentence, Oct. 18: Parker is sentenced to 11 years in prison.

Sources: Times reports

Researched by JANICE L. JONES / Los Angeles Times