SIMI VALLEY : Man Pleads Guilty to Bankruptcy Fraud

A Simi Valley man who is on probation for illegally selling an assault weapon has pleaded guilty to a charge of bankruptcy fraud, FBI officials said Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors filed a criminal complaint last week alleging that Steven Robert Breitel, 48, had hidden the fact that he owned expensive vehicles and a boat when he filed for bankruptcy in the spring of 1991, said Charlie J. Parsons, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of the FBI.

Breitel entered a guilty plea to the charge on the same day and will be sentenced Feb. 8, Parsons said. He could face up to five years in a federal prison and be fined up to $5,000, Parsons said.

When filing his bankruptcy petition in May, 1991, Breitel concealed from the trustee and his creditors several pieces of property, including a 1973 Pantera automobile valued at $200,000, a 1983 Chevrolet Camaro and a late-model boat and trailer, authorities said.

The bankruptcy charge follows earlier gun charges brought against Breitel, a gun show promoter. In October, 1991, he was arrested at his Simi Valley home after he allegedly agreed to sell automatic weapons to an undercover Los Angeles sheriff’s deputy.

On March 17, 1992, he pleaded guilty to possession of a machine gun and offering an assault gun for sale and was sentenced to probation, said Charles Teevan, an investigator in the FBI’s Ventura office.

Breitel remains free on probation awaiting sentencing on the bankruptcy charge, Teevan said.