Securities Fraud

An Oxnard man already serving a seven-year prison sentence for swindling investors was indicted by the Ventura County Grand Jury on unrelated financial scam charges, officials announced Thursday. Wayne Neal Fleischer, 50, was indicted along with four Los Angeles County residents and an Arizona man on charges of grand theft, securities fraud, selling unregistered securities, money laundering and tax evasion.

San Diego's Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, which split into two law firms this week, settled securities fraud cases worth $2.1 billion in 2003, the most among firms that represent investors, according to a list released Tuesday by Institutional Shareholder Services. Milberg Weiss surpassed New York's Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman, which had $950 million in settlements in 2003, and Grant & Eisenhofer in Wilmington, Del., which had $611 million.

Harry Shuster, a Beverly Hills entrepreneur whose offbeat ventures included animal safaris and cigar clubs, has been convicted of securities fraud and other charges, federal prosecutors said. Shuster, 66, faces up to 75 years in prison when he is sentenced Nov. 16, the U.S. attorney's office in New York said.

One of three Ventura County brothers accused of involvement in a $2.3-million swindle through the defunct Fountain Oil & Gas Co. has been sentenced to a year in County Jail. Ventura County Superior Court Judge Frederick A. Jones imposed the sentence Friday on Kenneth R. Fuentes, 36, of Thousand Oaks, who pleaded guilty in December to seven charges of securities fraud. The sentence also includes six years probation. Fountain President Charles E.

Vivendi Universal, the world's fifth-largest media company, must defend a lawsuit accusing the company and former Chief Executive Jean-Marie Messier of defrauding investors, a judge ruled. U.S. District Judge Harold Baer in Manhattan said in a 40-page opinion that investors had made enough allegations to sustain their securities fraud suit.

A psychotherapist in Santa Monica faces a possible prison sentence and stiff fine for listening to more than his client's problems while he was in his office. Mervyn Cooper, 57, a licensed psychotherapist, pleaded guilty Wednesday to securities fraud for using insider information he gleaned from a patient to make a $7,000 investment in Lockheed Aircraft Co. The patient, a high-ranking Lockheed executive, told Cooper that a significant event would occur soon at the company.

A proposed federal law governing fraud in securities investments is being opposed by the City Council, which agrees with the League of California Cities that the law would not do enough to protect victims of securities fraud. At a meeting last week, the council voted unanimously to oppose the Securities Litigation Reform Act. Council members acted after being urged by the League of California Cities to join in efforts to derail the legislation.