Ex-Coastal Panelist’s Probation Ends Early

A former prominent real estate broker known as the “coastal commissioner to the stars” is free of federal supervision.

Mark Nathanson, 60, a former Beverly Hills real estate agent, was released from probation early after agreeing to pay $113,954, the balance on $116,000 he owed in restitution and fines.

Federal prosecutors had threatened to send the former state Coastal Commission member back to prison unless he repaid the money he extorted from a developer in a scheme to have people pay for permission to build along the Pacific.

Nathanson was freed from prison in 1997 after a judge cut a year from the sentence he was serving for tax evasion and racketeering.

The former commissioner had tried to reduce his prison term seven years ago by implicating then-state Controller Gray Davis. Officials dismissed his statements as lies, and Davis went on to become governor.

In an action revealed in court records Friday, Nathanson was freed from post-prison supervision and given back his passport.

He was once among the most powerful appointed state officials in California and had strong ties to then-Assembly Speaker Willie Brown. Nathanson’s fall came during a high-profile corruption case after an undercover FBI sting operation in the Capitol during the late 1980s.

He pleaded guilty in 1993 to federal charges that he used his public office to extort payments from Hollywood celebrities and others seeking permits to build along the coast.

The corruption probe led to the conviction of 14 people, including five legislators.