Arrest Forces Real Estate Dealer to Pay Sanctions : Court: Michael Henschel was held after being cited for contempt of court in a bankruptcy case. He paid $9,300.

Embattled real estate whiz Michael D. Henschel was arrested this week by U.S. marshals and released several hours later after paying more than $9,300 in sanctions stemming from his involvement in a bitterly contested bankruptcy case.

Henschel, 46, was taken into custody at his Van Nuys office Wednesday morning on a warrant issued by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Geraldine Mund. Mund, who last September found Henschel in contempt and slapped him with sanctions, issued the warrant due to his failure to pay them.

Gilbert Garcia, public information officer for the U.S. Marshals Service, said Henschel was held at the marshals’ lockup in Downtown Los Angeles until about 6 p.m., when his wife produced cashier’s checks to pay the sanctions.

Henschel could not be reached for comment Friday. But attorney Belinda K. Orem of Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker, which received part of the payment as legal fees, said “we’re very pleased to have received the sanctions awarded by the court, and to see justice done.”

The sanctions stemmed from Henschel’s failure to cooperate at a deposition when attorneys sought to investigate his role in the bankruptcy petition of Malibu Ocean View Corp. Elias and Julio Liberman, brothers and principals in the firm, had sought Henschel’s help in filing the petition to prevent their nephew, Lenard D. Liberman, from foreclosing on a piece of property at Lake Arrowhead.

According to the bankruptcy petition, Malibu Ocean View was represented by attorney Milton Kerlan Jr. But Kerlan, an acquaintance of Henschel’s, later testified that he knew nothing about the case, and had neither prepared nor signed any of the documents that bore his name. Kerlan also testified that he believed that Henschel had prepared and signed Kerlan’s name to legal documents in other lawsuits and bankruptcy cases without Kerlan’s authorization.

Henschel, a law school graduate who was never admitted to the State Bar of California, refused to answer questions about his role in the case. According to Mund’s order last Sept. 19, Henschel showed up more than an hour late for his deposition, and then “invoked the privilege against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment on almost a blanket basis”--even to questions not covered by the privilege.

Most of the sanctions were paid to Lenard Liberman and his lawyers at Paul, Hastings for their time and legal costs.

Citing a series of irregularities in several of Henschel’s personal bankruptcy filings, Mund last March took the unusual step of barring him from filing another bankruptcy petition until 2001.

For Henschel, the arrest was only the latest in a series of legal scrapes. Less than two weeks ago, he was acquitted of grand theft in Los Angeles Superior Court in a case involving a real estate investment. His trial in a separate misdemeanor grand theft case is scheduled later this month in Municipal Court.

Henschel also is the subject of a federal criminal investigation involving complaints of bank and bankruptcy fraud.