NEWPORT BEACH : 2 to Serve at Home for Prize Scheme

Two Huntington Beach men who tricked senior citizens across the nation into believing that they had won prize money and persuaded them to pay a gift tax pleaded guilty to money laundering and grand theft charges.

Ahri Gareen, 35, and Ryan Pirkle, 23, who were arrested by Irvine police in March, pleaded guilty in Municipal Court in Newport Beach on Thursday to all 91 counts against them, Irvine Detective Denny Jenner said.

Gareen was ordered to pay $90,000 in restitution to the victims and will be confined to his home for 365 days through an electronic monitor. Pirkle received a $30,000 restitution order and will be confined to his home for 180 days.

Police said the two men and other co-defendants worked out of a Huntington Beach boiler room in a financial plaza, where they operated a bogus sweepstakes company called “National Clearing House,” after the popular Publishers Clearing House, police said.

Acting as telemarketers, police said, Gareen and Pirkle called people and told them they had won amounts ranging from $25,000 to $1 million. The victims were told that they had to pay a 1% state gift tax to receive the prize money, police said.

About 200 victims sent amounts ranging from $400 to $10,000 to post office boxes in Irvine but received nothing in return, Jenner said.

The operation began in October, 1994, and was led by Roy Perry, 29, who was sentenced to four years in prison last June and ordered to pay restitution of more than $186,000 to victims of the telemarketing scam.

A fourth defendant, Richard Basile, will face a preliminary hearing Aug. 3 on the 91 counts.