Fleiss’ Father Agrees to Plea Bargain, Attorney Says : Courts: He is expected to admit he conspired to conceal the Hollywood madam’s illegal income from IRS. The doctor refused earlier plea offers.

Dr. Paul Fleiss, a prominent pediatrician and the father of Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss, is expected to plead guilty in federal court this morning to charges of conspiracy to conceal his daughter’s illegal income from the Internal Revenue Service, his attorney said Wednesday.

The elder Fleiss, who has practiced medicine in Los Angeles for 30 years, will plead guilty to lesser charges in an effort to reduce his potential sentence, attorney Christopher Caldwell said.

Caldwell said a written plea bargain had been negotiated with the government. The prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Atty. Mark Holscher, declined to comment.

Fleiss, 61, and his 29-year-old daughter were charged in federal court with laundering money and evading taxes by concealing thousands of dollars from Heidi Fleiss’ call girl ring, which catered to Hollywood glitterati. The father had refused previous plea bargains offered by prosecutors.

The maximum penalty for the charges against them ran to hundreds of years behind bars. In the most likely scenario, Paul Fleiss faced three years or longer. Caldwell said under the plea bargain agreement, Fleiss could face only four to 10 months in prison or serve his sentence at his home, a decision to be made by a judge.

“We will be asking the court to consider Dr. Fleiss’ exemplary public service record,” Caldwell said.

Heidi Fleiss was convicted last year of pandering charges in Superior Court. She is scheduled to be sentenced Friday. If she is convicted of the federal charges she will probably face another four to six years in prison.

Caldwell said Paul Fleiss will plead guilty to some of the lesser charges the government levied against him last year: conspiracy and filing false statements to federally insured banks with the intent of hiding income from the IRS. According to the government’s estimate, the elder Fleiss’ actions helped cheat the government of $27,400 in taxes, Caldwell said.

“Obviously, this has been a difficult ordeal for Dr. Fleiss, just as it would be for anyone,” Caldwell said. “He’s eager to take responsibility for his actions and move on with his life. This has been hanging over him for a long time.”

Authorities believed that Fleiss concealed the profits from his daughter’s illicit business by aiding her in the purchase of a $1.6-million Benedict Canyon home and channeling her funds through his bank accounts.

Originally, the U.S. attorney’s office had offered a sentence of two or three years for Heidi Fleiss and the possibility of brief probation for her father if the two pleaded guilty. But the father and daughter viewed this offer as a strong-arm tactic.

“As a matter of principle, I’m not guilty,” Paul Fleiss said earlier.

A second offer was made last fall--a plea bargain that was also refused.

In December, prosecutors called in a different chit, notifying Heidi Fleiss’ sister Shana that she, like her father, had access to Heidi’s bank account. Like her father, Shana Fleiss had also deposited checks for Heidi. Federal officials granted Shana Fleiss limited immunity in exchange for her willingness to testify when the federal case goes to trial, scheduled for next month.

Caldwell said that Paul Fleiss had agreed to change his plea because he had changed attorneys--Caldwell took over the case two months ago--and because “he’s eager to move on.”