Lawyer Gets 24-Year Sentence in Fraud Case

Despite a two-hour plea for leniency, Beverly Hills lawyer Gary Lefkowitz has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for bilking investors in low-income housing projects out of $80 million.

“I’ve never hurt a soul in my life,” Lefkowitz said Friday after U.S. District Judge David Doty in Minneapolis imposed what prosecutors called a record punishment for white-collar crime.

U.S. Atty. David Lillehaug said it was the longest white-collar crime sentence in the 10-year history of federal sentencing guidelines, according to his nationwide survey.

A federal jury deliberated six hours before it convicted Lefkowitz in July of mail fraud, wire fraud, filing false returns and running a continuing financial crime enterprise.

Lefkowitz ran a Culver City-based investment company called Citi Equity Group, which helped finance and build low-rent apartment buildings across the country. The company was forced into bankruptcy after Lefkowitz was indicted last year.

Prosecutors said Lefkowitz swindled about 5,000 investors nationwide.

Many of the investors thought they were buying legitimate tax shelters designed to help finance low-income housing, only to learn that they were liable for a total of $20 million in back taxes and penalties, prosecutors said.

The judge found that in addition to the investor losses, construction contractors lost about $20 million and the government lost $20 million in fraudulent tax credits.

Prosecutors alleged that Lefkowitz spent investors’ money to cover cash-flow problems and to support a luxurious lifestyle. His personal expenses included $33,000-a-month mortgage payments for homes in Beverly Hills and a Colorado ski resort.