Two men were sentenced Monday to five years probation in a grand theft and conspiracy case stemming from a $260,000 disbursement from sale proceeds from a multimillion-dollar commercial property in Torrance.
Attorney David Simard, who lived in Nevada and was licensed to practice law in Illinois, and Illinois resident Michael Doran were convicted in a downtown Los Angeles courtroom on March 28.
Simard was the president of Storm Properties Inc. in Harbor Gateway at the time the five-acre industrial property was sold. An audit of the sale found that Simard had wired $260,000 from escrow to a company owned by Doran, and the two created a fake contract for services never rendered to try and cover up the theft, according to investigators from the sheriff’s Fraud and Cyber Crimes Bureau.
The pair split the money and Simard used some of it to buy a Ferrari 550 Marnello from a Newport Beach dealership, according to investigators. That car was later seized by authorities.
Doran was arrested in Illinois in April 2012 and extradited to Los Angeles. Simard was arrested at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas.
A restitution hearing is scheduled for Jan. 15.
— City News Service