Local News in Brief : Guilty Pleas in Tax Fraud

Peter Brown and Robert Baron, partners in the Beverly Hills law firm of Brown, Baron & Gailen, pleaded guilty Monday to filing false income tax returns in a case stemming from a $15-million loan fraud and kickback scheme.

Brown, 44, a criminal defense lawyer, admitted filing false tax returns in 1982 and 1983 in which he failed to report an estimated $100,000 in income earned from real estate transactions involved in the scheme. Baron, 47, who practices corporate law, admitted filing a false return in which about $85,000 was unreported.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Laurie Levenson said the two men acted as straw buyers in a scheme to obtain multimillion-dollar loans by artificially increasing the price of properties through double escrows and falsifying bank loan applications.

All 11 defendants indicted in the case have pleaded guilty, Levenson said.