Settlement Concludes 16-Year Sierra Saga

Investors who lost nearly $6.4 million in the collapse of Sierra Realty and Investments--a Tustin real estate company shut down by state regulators in 1982--will get about 1 cent on the dollar under a bankruptcy settlement reached this week.

About 292 investors will share a total of $80,000. Another $480,000 will go to Santa Ana attorney E. Paul Tonkovich, who has worked as receiver for the company for 16 years.

Tonkovich said the long-running bankruptcy--filed in 1983--was complicated by the need to seize and liquidate nearly 600 residential properties that were once part of Sierra.

In 1988, the company’s former president, Daniel N. Bailey, was sentenced to eight years in prison for lying to investors about the value of the properties.