Former Car Parts Exec Sentenced in Fraud Case

Richard Marks, the former president of Torrance-based Motorcar Parts & Accessories Inc., was sentenced to nine months in jail and nine months’ house arrest for filing false financial statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Marks, 53, agreed to plead guilty to the charges in December 2003 and settled a related SEC accounting fraud investigation for $1.2 million.

U.S. District Judge A. Howard Matz in Los Angeles said that the fraud Marks engaged in had helped warp the business community and that not to give him a jail term would suggest that people with money and skillful lawyers could get away with things other people couldn’t.