Ex-Federal Prosecutor Pleads Guilty

A former federal prosecutor pleaded guilty Wednesday to three felony charges stemming from illegal business transactions he conducted while he was an assistant U.S. attorney handling organized crime cases in Los Angeles.

Andrew S. Pitt pleaded guilty in federal court to two counts of wire fraud and one count of engaging in a conflict of interest. Justice Department lawyers alleged Pitt received money from individuals who were subjects of federal investigations.

U.S. Atty. Nora M. Manella said that no one in the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles could recall any previous instance where a staff attorney had been charged with or convicted of a crime, although some federal prosecutors in other cities have been convicted of felonies.

Manella said she was appalled by Pitt’s conduct: “He betrayed the principles and ideals of this office and the trust reposed in him as a federal prosecutor.”

According to a signed plea agreement, Pitt took $33,000 from an illegal stock transaction he was investigating. In separate cases, he also accepted $98,000 from one informant and $35,000 from another. Pitt recommended probation for one informant rather than prison time, and asked for postponement of a prison reporting date for the other informant.

Pitt, 38, could be sentenced to 24 to 30 months in prison and face a stiff fine under federal sentencing guidelines. No sentencing date has been set.

However, in a softening comment, the plea agreement states that the government will not assert during Pitt’s sentencing hearing that his conduct constituted receipt of a bribe.

Pitt, who lives in the Santa Clarita Valley, could not be reached for comment. His attorney, Charles M. Wehner of Los Angeles, said: “Drew Pitt made some mistakes and he’s acknowledging those mistakes”

Wehner said Pitt “has apologized to the U.S. attorney’s office for any adverse consequences on that office. He has resigned from the U.S. attorney’s office and the [California] Bar Assn. As a result of those things, he has paid a terrific price for a failure to keep his business interests separated from the people he was collecting information from in his role as an assistant U.S. attorney.”

A graduate of De Paul University Law School in Chicago, Pitt joined the Justice Department’s Organized Crime Strike in Los Angeles in 1988 after working as a deputy district attorney in Los Angeles and a stint in private practice. The strike force was incorporated into the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles in 1989.

He was suspended in 1995 and has been on paid leave while the Justice Department’s Office of Public Integrity investigated allegations against him.

Thom Mrozek, the U.S. attorney’s spokesman, said that Justice Department investigators did not find any evidence that would jeopardize any of the cases Pitt prosecuted. In a separate matter, Pitt also was accused in March by the Securities and Exchange Commission of orchestrating a securities fraud that bilked investors out of hundreds of thousands of dollars. The SEC complaint alleged that Pitt made false public statements designed to artificially boost stock prices of his firm, Conectisys Corp, a shell company with no assets.