Local News in Brief : ZZZZ Best Defendant Draws 30-Day Term
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A Reseda gardener accused of helping two others launder nearly $500,000 in ZZZZ Best corporate funds through Las Vegas casinos during the waning days of Barry Minkow’s carpet cleaning empire was sentenced Tuesday to 30 days in a halfway house.
Eugene Lasko, 56, was only a minor defendant in the case that resulted in the conviction of 12 men on securities fraud, mail fraud and bank fraud charges after federal investigators learned that the Reseda-based ZZZZ Best was generating most its revenues through fraud.
Though prosecutors characterized Lasko as the “least culpable” of the defendants, U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian sentenced him to a brief period of incarceration and also ordered him to perform 300 hours of community service and pay a $1,000 fine.
“Nobody’s going to walk,” the judge said.
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