Landscaper Admits Bank Fraud, Filing False Tax Returns : Courts: Tustin man could be sentenced to 66 years after pleading guilty to 4 felony charges.

A Tustin man who operates Coast Landscape in Anaheim Hills has pleaded guilty to two felony counts of filing false income tax returns and two counts of bank fraud, federal authorities said Tuesday.

Richard H. Bond, 59, owner of Boundless Enterprises Inc., which operates as Coast Landscape, pleaded guilty to understating his personal income for 1990 and his corporate income for 1991 by roughly $300,000 and overstating his and his company’s income by $100,000 to $200,000 on loan applications.

He listed personal income of $41,545 and a business loss of $166,900, but the Internal Revenue Service determined that he and his company owe a total of more than $100,000 in taxes, court documents state. Assistant U.S. Atty. Nathan J. Hochman said the tax liability means that he earned roughly $300,000 more than he disclosed on his personal and corporate returns.

At the same time he understated his income to the IRS, Bond overstated his income to obtain a $288,700 home mortgage from American Savings Bank in Irvine and a $70,000 small business loan, guaranteed by the federal government, from Dana Niguel Bank in Dana Point.

Bond faces a maximum penalty of 66 years in prison and a $1-million fine when he is sentenced Jan. 18 by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Timlin.

“Realistically, though, he’s looking at 10 to 16 months in prison because, so far, there has been no loss associated with his loans,” Hochman said. “He’s current on his loans. The only loss is to the IRS.”

The investigation by the IRS and the U.S. Small Business Administration was sparked by an earlier SBA-backed loan Bond had sought. The federal agency refused to fund that loan because it determined that he had inflated his income on loan documents. He pleaded guilty in March to submitting a false income tax return with his application, and he will also be sentenced on that charge Jan. 18.