ESCROW FIRM OWNERS FACE SENTENCING : COUPLE ACCUSED OF MISUSING MILLIONS IN TRUST FUND ACCOUNT.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Daily News Staff Writer

The former owners of what was Santa Clarita's largest escrow company are to be sentenced today for the misuse of more than $2.7 million in company trust funds - and their lawyers are pleading for leniency.

Harold and Kathy Wiener, one-time community leaders in Santa Clarita and owners of the Valencia-based Country Oaks Escrow Co., have pleaded no contest in the 1993 case that marked the largest failure of an independent escrow company in the state.

Harold Wiener, who currently works part time in the real estate field in Salt Lake City, faces up to five years in state prison.

Prosecutor Kathryn Showers said she plans to recommend four years in state prison for Harold Wiener, and two years for his wife, because she was less responsible for the company's finances, she said.

Showers also wants the couple to pay back $2.7 million in restitution to Escrow Agents Fidelity Corp., which paid $1 million of the trust account funds, and $1.7 million to Fidelity's carrier, National Union Insurance. The two companies paid for home buyers and sellers to close escrows when the company was shut down by authorities.

And on the day that income tax filings are due, the couple likely will be ordered to pay back about $148,000 to the Franchise Tax Board, Showers said.

The couple's attorneys are asking for probation, rather than jail time, because of their poor health and to allow them to work to earn money for the restitution. Kathy Wiener works as a real estate consultant.

Kathy Wiener has diabetes, and her husband underwent a heart transplant in 1989 and has had a finger amputated because of poor blood circulation.

``He's pretty much a living time bomb,'' said his attorney, Jeff Karpel.

The attorney plans to argue that the county or state will have to pay about $40,000 annually for Harold Wiener's medication and biopsies, which are now picked up by a private insurance company.

Karpel also will ask the judge to consider that the couple must support their two children, ages 18 and 24.

The attorney said he expects ``quite a few people,'' including friends, family and those from the escrow community, to attend the hearing. Some witnesses also may testify, Showers said.

Both Kathy and Harold Wiener are out of jail on bail.

Harold Wiener, 53, controller of Country Oaks, pleaded no contest to grand theft of the escrow trust fund, admitting he embezzled between $2.7 million and $2.8 million from his trust fund account, officials said.

He also pleaded no contest to signing a false 1992 tax return.

Kathy Wiener, 48, the company's licensee, pleaded no contest to the unauthorized disbursement of escrow funds and to giving misstatements and leaving out information in an escrow document, officials said.

From June 1990 to May 1993, the couple deposited trust money into a general fund from which they financed general operations as well as personal expenses, Showers said.

The money was tracked to their personal account, which included funds from hundreds of home buyers and sellers as deposits for homes being sold, the prosecutor said.

The couple used the funds to make their own house payments, pay off beachfront property in San Diego, and pay car loans and personal credit card bills, Showers said.

State regulators seized the couple's company in June 1993, after receiving a call from a Country Oaks official who said $2 million was missing from its accounts. Hundreds of home buyers and sellers had deposits and other funds frozen for months while investigators probed company papers.

All the losses were later repaid by the insurers. The company's closure left 105 employees without work and their pensions and other benefits.

Burrow Escrow, based in Santa Ana, immediately was hired to take over the escrow company, which still operates in Valencia.

The couple, who has no prior criminal record, agreed to pay back the funds. They moved from their Placerita Canyon home to Salt Lake City shortly after the escrow company closed.