Ex-Deputy Pleads Guilty to Bilking

A retired Ventura County sheriff’s deputy on Monday became the last of eight county residents to plead guilty to defrauding the Point Mugu Naval Air Station between 1984 and 1989.

Anthony J. Ditzhazy, 56, of Camarillo pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles to bilking the air station--and therefore taxpayers--out of more than $130,000 in 1988 alone.

He faces up to eight years in prison and fines of up to $500,000 when he is sentenced April 22.

Most of the seven residents already sentenced received two years in prison, Assistant Atty. Gen. Patricia Beaman said.

Ditzhazy, who retired from the sheriff’s office in 1992 after 30 years of service, admitted falsifying invoices from 1987 through 1989 for Pacific Proline, a Camarillo company he operated that sold industrial supplies to the base, Beaman said.

Ditzhazy would bribe two civilian employees with such items as uniforms for a soccer team, then split the money received for the nonexistent goods listed on the fake invoices.

In 1988 the government’s estimated loss was believed to be at least $130,153.

Ditzhazy even deducted the bribe payments to the two men as a business expense on his income tax return, Beaman said. He also pleaded guilty to falsifying an income tax return.

The court case is the last in an elaborate conspiracy that operated on the base during the 1980s.

The scheme involved more than $750,000 in fraudulent sales conducted by civilian base employees and the owners of several county businesses.

The embarrassing litany of bogus orders, kickbacks and other illegal activity that surfaced in 1992 left officials saying the scandal had compromised the base’s integrity and vowing to root out any similar corruption.