Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Settlement OKd in Massive Land-Fraud Case : Courts: Businessman will turn over $30 million in assets and pay $500,000 over scheme to sell 2 1/2-acre lots mainly to Latinos.

A Westside businessman agreed Wednesday to turn over about $30 million in assets and pay $580,000 to settle a lawsuit alleging a massive land-fraud scheme in the Antelope Valley.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige approved the settlement Wednesday, ending a suit that named developer Marshall Redman, three of his real estate companies and 10 others accused of selling desert land to unwitting investors, most of them Latinos.

Lawyers and others involved in the case said later Wednesday that the settlement is expected to provide for some 1,250 unhappy investors who thought that they were buying 2 1/2-acre home sites touted since 1979 in advertisements on Spanish-language television stations.

Prosecutors “could have gone for [criminal charges] and grandstanded and got nothing. Instead, they made the victims’ recovery a priority,” said Donald Henry, the Woodland Hills-based receiver who has been overseeing Redman’s business affairs for the past year.

“Most people will get what they paid for,” Henry added. “Those that don’t will be taken care of in another way.”

The TV commercials, placed by either Redman Investment Co. or Del Sol Properties Inc., promoted 2 1/2-acre parcels for sale at prices from $19,000 to $29,000.

According to the suit, which was filed Jan. 31, 1994, buyers were actually sold a shared interest in 10-acre parcels--and could do nothing on the land without the agreement of others who were also sold an undivided interest in the same parcel.

Buyers were also told that several houses could be built on their sites when, in fact, plots were zoned for one single-family dwelling or commercial use, Los Angeles City Atty. James K. Hahn said Wednesday.

He called it a “classic Western land swindle.”

The suit named as defendants the following major shareholders in Redman Investment and Del Sol Properties: Redman, 66, of Beverly Hills; his wife, Doris E. Redman; their son, Jeffrey G. Redman; their daughter, Terry S. Redman, also known as Terri Myerson, and her husband, Richard Myerson.

Also named as defendants were Marshall Redman & Associates, owned by Redman and his wife; Ivan Valverde, identified by prosecutors as a “manager of the land sales operation,” and five salespeople; Sergio E. Jeria, Silvia Jeria, Wilson Sanchez, Norberto Vigodnier and Adriana Leinbock.

The Kern County district attorney’s office joined in the suit, which alleged unfair business practices, because the 2,500 parcels of land were spread across both Kern and Los Angeles counties.

Under the settlement, Henry took permanent control Wednesday of about $30 million in assets owned by the three real estate companies. The $580,000 includes $330,000 in fines and $250,000 in attorneys’ fees and other costs.

Henry plans to set up a fund to repay some investors, help others find alternative sites and help still more clear title defects if they want to keep the land, Hahn said.

Henry said he expects that process will take three to five years.

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