Karatz

For an American public seething over the housing market crash and the financial and economic crises it triggered, Bruce Karatz's conviction Wednesday may offer some small hope that justice can and will be done in the business world. Karatz, the former chief executive of Los Angeles builder KB Home, wasn't on trial for crimes related directly to the housing market bubble. Rather, he was found guilty of fraud tied to the manipulation of stock option grants beginning more than a decade ago. But so-called option-backdating abuses — which mushroomed into a national corporate scandal in 2005 and have since been uncovered at hundreds of U.S. companies — involve some of the same basic issues that would be at the heart of any government prosecution of crime related to the financial crisis: disclosure (or lack thereof)

A federal judge on Tuesday declined to investigate alleged misconduct by prosecutors in the stock option backdating case against former KB Home Chief Executive Bruce Karatz, citing an "astonishing" lack of evidence to support the allegations. In a motion filed last month, Karatz's lawyers accused prosecutors of manipulating witnesses in the upcoming trial, saying two former KB Home employees who once supported Karatz later changed their accounts after meeting with prosecutors. They asked the court to conduct a hearing to determine whether prosecutors crossed any lines during the investigation.

The Billionaires (as estimated by Forbes magazine) Meet the billionaires in our online interactive by clicking here , or on the link to the left . High-p rofile trustees Steven Mnuchin is chief executive of OneWest Bank, the largest bank in Southern California. His father is art dealer Robert Mnuchin, a former investment banker who is a partner in the L&M Arts galleries in Manhattan and Venice, Calif. Edward Minskoff and Charles Cohen are two leading New York-based real estate figures.

Federal probation officials are recommending that former KB Home executive Bruce Karatz spend no time in prison for his conviction on felony fraud charges related to stock manipulation, according to court documents filed by prosecutors Friday. The United States Probation Office suggested that Karatz, 64, receive a sentence of five years' probation, including eight months of home confinement, prosecutors said. Federal prosecutors filed an objection to the recommendation at the federal courthouse in Los Angeles, noting that the home detention would be served "in defendant's 24-room Bel-Air mansion situated on a one-acre estate.

Bruce Karatz, homeboy? The former KB Home chief executive, who is to be sentenced Wednesday on three felony convictions in a stock option manipulation case, has been volunteering his services for the last six months at the Homeboy Industries gang-intervention program in Los Angeles. Karatz has helped the financially troubled agency by "finding bold and creative ways to broaden our brand, increase the revenue in our businesses and invite more stakeholders to invest," said Father Gregory Boyle, Homeboy's founder and executive director.

Toward a better DWP Re "Empowering the DWP," Opinion, April 21 Reading new interim General Manager Austin Beutner's four-point plan for empowering the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, I thought I was reading from a Business 101 textbook: Be transparent to ensure public money is well spent; Use capital efficiently and find out why we own so much land and operate so many facilities compared with our peers; ...

Former KB Home chief Bruce Karatz turned to a powerful ally Thursday in his defense against stock-options backdating charges, presenting former Los Angeles Mayor Richard J. Riordan as the first of his character witnesses. Riordan, who served as mayor from 1993 to 2001, told jurors at the federal courthouse in Los Angeles that he's known Karatz for 30 years, considers him a close friend and does not believe Karatz would knowingly commit a crime. "I think he's an outstanding character who respects the law. He has a very high level of integrity," said Riordan, whose voice was so powerful that defense attorney John Keker instructed him to back away from the microphone.

Bruce Karatz, who helped turn Westwood-based KB Home into one of the nation's most successful home builders during two decades as its chief executive, was convicted Wednesday on four felony charges related to the manipulation of executive stock options. A federal jury in Los Angeles convicted Karatz of two counts of mail fraud, making false statements in a regulatory filing and lying to the company's accountants. The panel acquitted him of 16 other charges. The jury rejected the government's claim that Karatz intentionally defrauded shareholders by backdating stock option grants from 1999 to 2005 to make them more valuable.

A federal prosecutor asked a jury Thursday to convict former KB Home chief Bruce Karatz of 20 felony charges, saying he secretly backdated stock options to enrich himself and other executives at the Westwood home-building company for seven years. But defense lawyer John Keker argued that the prosecution's case was largely based on the testimony of another former KB Home executive who has admitted lying to FBI investigators and was hopelessly flawed as a result. He also told jurors that Karatz and other KB executives thought the company's options practices were proper and a sign that the former chief executive acted in good faith -- not as the thief prosecutors portrayed.