Jurors Acquit Man in Stolen Ruby Plot : Courts: They deadlock on similar charges involving a Chatsworth resident. Prosecutors may seek to retry him.

A Van Nuys Superior Court jury Friday decided that an Irvine man was not involved in a scheme to sell a stolen ruby to its original owner. The panel deadlocked, however, over similar charges against a Chatsworth man.

Behzad Saba, 33, was acquitted by the six-man, six-woman jury of a charge of receiving stolen property. Judge Kathryne Ann Stoltz declared a mistrial in the case against Rasekh Uddin Siddiqui, 46, when the jury reported that it was deadlocked 8 to 4 in favor of conviction.

Prosecutors will announce May 6 whether Siddiqui will be retried.

On Thursday, the same jury found Ali Reza Paravar, 42, of Woodland Hills guilty of stealing the 6.76-carat Burmese ruby--estimated to be worth between $500,000 and $1 million. Paravar faces up to five years in prison.

Charges against a fourth man arrested in the case--Antranik Harbouian, 46, of Montebello--were dismissed last week by Stoltz, who ruled that there was insufficient evidence presented against him during the trial.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Eduards Abele said Saba’s acquittal was not unexpected, admitting that the evidence against him was weak. But Abele said Paravar’s conviction was important because this case was not simply a business deal gone bad, as defense attorneys had argued.

“Using the notion of something being a bad business deal is not going to be justification for criminal activity,” he said. “It may be necessary in the jewelry business to be loose about paperwork. But it is not going to justify someone flat-out stealing someone else’s property.”

The convoluted case came to light over the summer when nearly two dozen law enforcement officers, backed up by a police helicopter, arrested the four men in an Encino parking lot following a sting operation. The original owner of the ruby had agreed to meet the defendants to buy back the gem for $360,000. Police found the stone in Paravar’s pocket.

According to testimony, German gem trader Peter Morlock gave the ruby in 1990 to Ron Levi to sell on consignment. Levi was to either return it within two days or pay Morlock $527,000. Instead, Levi gave the stone to Paravar.

Paravar testified that he refused to return the ruby to Morlock because Levi owed him $300,000 and had given him the gem as collateral. Morlock then went to police. As the police investigation began, Levi disappeared.

He has not been charged in the case, but has been indicted by a grand jury in Texas in another alleged gem consignment scam.