CONVICTED OWNER OF ESCROW FIRM TO BEGIN TERM.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Four years after the collapse of Country Oaks Escrow Co., and two months after the owners were convicted of grand theft, Harold Wiener surrendered Friday to begin his state prison term.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Thomas Willhite Jr. ordered Wiener, 53, be taken into custody by sheriff's deputies.

``He surrendered at 8:30 a.m.,'' said court clerk Clarence Ramey. ``It was very quick and uneventful.''

Until the state Department of Corrections makes a prison assignment, Wiener will remain in county custody. He was booked Friday morning at the Men's Central Jail, said Deputy Elsa Avila, a Sheriff's Department spokeswoman.

Country Oaks failed in June 1993 amid allegations of a $2.7 million embezzlement. On June 11, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carolyn Kuhl sentenced Wiener, 53, and his 49-year-old wife, Katherine, to four- and two-year state prison terms, respectively.

Country Oaks was the Santa Clarita Valley's largest escrow company before the Valencia firm shut down. Prosecutors charged the couple with grand theft and two other related felonies - unauthorized disbursement of trust funds and misstatements or omissions regarding escrow affairs.

The couple eventually entered pleas of no contest in Superior Court rather than go through a trial, prosecutors said.

Since the sentencing, Katherine Wiener has been held in the county jail system pending a state prison assignment, according to her defense attorney's staff.

The judge allowed Harold Wiener 60 days to surrender, to attend to some health problems, make arrangements with prison officials to receive needed medications during his term, and to get his affairs in order back in Salt Lake City, where the couple had been living during the prosecution, said his attorney, Jeffrey Karpel.

``He had surgery on his toe,'' Karpel said, noting that Wiener's condition was related to his heart problems. ``Apparently, with all the medication he is taking, (his heart) is not providing the necessary circulation'' to his extremities, the attorney said.

``He's had some fingers that have been partially amputated as well.''

Escrow Agents Fidelity Corp., a mutual benefit corporation that provides fidelity bond protection for independent escrow companies, covered the loss suffered by the buyers and sellers when Country Oaks collapsed, district attorney's officials said.

The couple lost a civil court embezzlement case, which included allegations they raided the trust funds to pay personal expenses and to support Country Oaks offices in Lancaster, Palmdale and Arcadia, along with the Valencia headquarters.

Defense attorneys argued that after Harold Wiener underwent a heart transplant in 1989, he took a mixture of medications to treat his condition - among them the sedative Halcion - that made him unable to distinguish right from wrong.

Defense attorneys argued that Kathy Wiener was unaware of any theft, while her husband may have been tripped up by his health problems and medication.

Country Oaks' collapse was one of the largest failures ever of an escrow company in California. When the Wieners lost the civil lawsuit, a judge ordered them to repay the missing $2.7 million.