2 Orange County Men Convicted in $23-Million Fraud

Guilty verdicts against two Orange County men charged in a $23-million fraud scheme involving phony equipment-leasing transactions were unsealed Friday in Los Angeles.

The verdicts against Robert P. Bernfeld, 37, of Huntington Beach and John N. Griffith, 39, of Santa Ana were sealed while the jury deliberated on a third defendant, Georgianna Carson, 41, of Huntington Beach. But U.S. District Judge William J. Rea, saying that one of the jurors had to return to her job, declared a mistrial in Carson’s case and unsealed the other verdicts.

A jury deadlocked in April on two other defendants charged in the case, including Kimball Richards, son of a former state senator. A new trial is set for Richards in October, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Leon W. Weidman.

Prosecutors said the defendants arranged phony transactions in which Bernfeld’s Riviera Capital Corp. pretended to buy audio equipment, including gear for rock concerts and recording studios, from a company run by another defendant. Riviera leased the “equipment” to Richard’s Consolidated Allied Cos. and then sold the worthless leases to different financial institutions.