Ex-Real Estate Broker Pleads Not Guilty

Former top real estate broker Ray Emery Lamb pleaded not guilty Monday in federal court to charges of bankruptcy fraud.

Lamb, 50, of Thousand Oaks entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Carolyn Turchin, denying charges in a federal grand jury indictment that he hid his part-ownership of a Pacoima laundry from bankruptcy officials.

An FBI affidavit filed last week accuses Lamb of failing to disclose his ownership of La Fiesta Lavanderia when he filed for Chapter 11 protection from his creditors in 1991.

Lamb emerged from bankruptcy in 1994 and sold the laundry business in 1995, walking away with checks totaling about $143,000, the affidavit says.

Lamb also received a half-share in a $225,000 note from the rest of the sale proceeds that was to have earned him about $1,530 a month until Sept. 1, 2001, when the rest of the note would be due and payable, the affidavit says. But federal authorities said they seized that asset from Lamb, as well as an account in a Camarillo bank and his partnership interest in a Westlake limousine service.

Lamb’s newest attorney, John Martin, who appeared Monday for the first time in the Lamb case, declined to comment, saying, “I don’t really know anything [about the charges] yet other than what’s in the indictment.”

Lamb, who once operated Ventura County’s largest independent real estate brokerage, remains free on $50,000 bond. His trial is scheduled for Nov. 25.