Valet Accused of Taking Boss to the Cleaners : Courts: Newport restaurateur and prosecutor say he embezzled more than $440,000. He says his millionaire employer knowingly gave him carte blanche to spend on himself and chauffeur.

Clarence R. Wheeler earned $33,000 a year as a valet, but it was easy to mistake him for his millionaire boss.

His suits were Armani, his watches Cartier. He spent summer vacations in Cannes, liked to dine at Le Cirque in New York and allegedly boasted about socializing with singer George Michael. He splurged on facials, massages, his own personal trainer. Without blinking, Wheeler cut a $42,000 check for a new BMW at Sterling Motors in Newport Beach, according to court records and his own attorney.

For 17 years, Wheeler worked as a trusted assistant to Larry J. Cano, founder of the El Torito restaurant empire.

But the good life ended when Cano accused his valet of dipping into his bank accounts and abusing his credit cards to buy gifts for the restaurateur’s chauffeur.

On Tuesday, the former valet goes on trial in Orange County Superior Court on 11 felony counts of grand theft, embezzlement, money laundering, credit card and tax fraud. Wheeler, 39, is accused of stealing more than $440,000 from his boss.

In addition to pressing criminal charges, Cano has also filed a civil lawsuit against Wheeler and credit card companies to recover his losses.

Wheeler’s attorney said his client is innocent, that Cano never defined any spending limits and gave the valet a free hand to buy clothes for himself and the chauffeur.

“Someone working for Larry Cano couldn’t be expected to dress tacky. He had to look and live the part,” said defense attorney Scott Well of Anaheim Hills.

Well alleges that Cano had visited the valet’s apartment several times, saw the posh furnishings and never complained.

“My client believed all along that Larry Cano wanted him to do these things,” the attorney said, citing a law stating that a person cannot be convicted of embezzlement if what he does is done in an open manner.

Well said the valet’s case may be strengthened by an official from Pacific National Bank, who, according to civil court records, stated that Cano signed in her presence power of attorney authorizing Wheeler to transfer money from Cano’s account and to write checks.

Those statements and others prompted prosecutors to drop the charges against the valet last March. After a lengthy investigation by Newport Beach police and the Orange County district attorney’s office, the criminal case was reinstated six months later. Prosecutors said they now believe they have sufficient evidence to convict the valet.

Cano declined to be interviewed for this story, but he asked his longtime friend--whose name is Larry R. Cano, producer of the movie “Silkwood”--to speak on his behalf.

Cano, the spokesman, said the millionaire feels hurt because he believes he was betrayed and defrauded by a trusted aide.

The spokesman said the restaurateur is aware that his lavish lifestyle will be on display during that criminal trial.

“But if (the millionaire) is guilty of anything, he’s guilty of not watching his own store,” the spokesman said. “Larry may have lived a lifestyle that most of us can only dream of. . . . But what does Larry’s lifestyle have to do with it? It’s a subterfuge to the real issue.”

Both the prosecutor and defense attorney in the case agreed the trial will offer a glimpse into the lifestyle of Orange County’s super-rich, the kind of Newport Beach opulence described in Joseph Wambaugh’s novel “The Golden Orange.”

The witness list includes forensic accountants, executives of Neiman Marcus, and British pop star Michael, who may be called by the prosecution to deny statements by Wheeler that the singer had given the valet money and gifts. Michael has told investigators that he does not know Wheeler.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Joe D’Agostino, the prosecutor, said the case is about “a lifestyle that most middle-class people, even in Orange County, are not familiar with. It’s much more extravagant than most people can imagine.”

The defense attorney agreed.

“The key to this case is to try to get jurors to understand what kind of money this man (Cano) had,” Well said. “This was a man who spent money to put his tulips and fur coats in cold storage for the next year, who bought a $70,000 limousine and paid cash. It’s unfathomable to many that this was a man who had four houses, and on any given day each was decorated with expensive floral arrangements worth several hundred dollars.”

Cano’s spokesman said he was unaware of the extent of Cano’s spending habits, but said the restaurateur was a wealthy man and that “the ‘80s were really good to him.”

Cano, 69, a former bartender, East Los Angeles native and Air Force captain in World War II, opened the first El Torito restaurant in Southern California in 1954 and went on to earn almost $18 million when he was bought out two decades later.

With wealth came homes in Newport Beach, Palm Desert, Aspen and Vail, Colo. Cano enjoyed annual jaunts to a leased home on the French Riviera, and luxury cars including a Rolls-Royce Corniche and Mercedes-Benzes.

Business continued to boom, and Cano was so busy that around 1975 he and his second wife decided to hire Wheeler, a young man from Pioneer, Ohio, “to be my houseboy and do housework and other personal services for us,” as Cano describes it in civil court papers.

Wheeler later worked as his valet. And in 1989, when Cano’s personal accountant left the job, the restaurateur promoted Wheeler with responsibilities to balance “my personal and credit card accounts, accounting for all my monies . . ., “ the same court documents state.

Cano’s account at Pacific National Bank in Newport Beach was considerable, with up to $300,000 flowing into the account some months, according to transcripts from Wheeler’s preliminary hearing in Municipal Court.

Wheeler, who still worked as Cano’s valet, wrote the spousal support checks to Cano’s three former wives and took care of bills incurred by Cano’s girlfriends, Well said.

The suspicions started in the fall of 1992. That’s when Cano says a $17,000 alimony check to one of his former wives bounced, according to the prosecutor in the criminal case. The millionaire called in accountants and later Newport Beach police detectives to investigate.

In civil court documents, Cano alleges that Wheeler embezzled $443,564 during a 2 1/2-year period from one of Cano’s bank accounts and in charges to Cano’s credit cards.

Prosecutors allege that Wheeler was enamored with Cano’s chauffeur and went on shopping sprees to shower the man with antiques, expensive artwork, Cartier watches and Armani suits from Neiman Marcus.

In one instance, the valet wrote a $60,000 check to the chauffeur, according to civil court documents.

The chauffeur, Thomas John Gioia, 33, who is a prosecution witness at the criminal trial, declined to comment through his attorney.

Cano’s lawsuit alleges that the valet gave the chauffeur, among other things, designer clothes from Gianni Versace in Beverly Hills and New York, meals at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point and Le Cirque in New York, and matching bracelets and diamond stud earrings.

After the alleged theft was discovered, Gioia returned thousands of dollars in antiques, paintings and clothes, including 25 Armani suits, to Cano, Cano’s spokesman said.

The spokesman said the millionaire never authorized the purchases, which were mostly made on his accounts with credit cards bearing Gioia’s and Wheeler’s names.

“There was absolutely no reason for Mr. Gioia or Mr. Wheeler to be so nicely dressed,” the spokesman said. “A run-of-the-mill sports coat or dark suit would do just fine.”

Well said his client acknowledges he made all the purchases, but says they were all authorized by his employer, Cano.

Well said Cano lived a lavish lifestyle and was “extremely generous” to his employees to the point where he leased cars for them.

The defense attorney said that he would contend at the trial that the valet was valued by his boss. “He literally fed, clothed and even bathed Mr. Cano,” Well said.

Now that Cano’s “finances are upside down, my client cannot understand why he has turned on him. All he’s done for the last 17 years is serve Larry Cano and now he accuses him of stealing money,” Well said.

Cano owns the landmark Cano’s Waterfront in Newport Beach, Kiva Grill in La Jolla, and two Manana restaurants in Southern California. Two of his businesses recently filed bankruptcy actions in federal court, seeking protection from creditors.

Larry R. Cano, the spokesman, said he believes that by the end of the criminal trial, “Mr. Wheeler is going to have to pay . . . and Mr. Cano will be a lot wiser in handling his future finances.”