RETIRED SURGEON PLEADS GUILTY IN TAX-EVASION CASE.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

A retired surgeon pleaded guilty Friday to federal money laundering charges in one of the largest tax-evasion cases in recent Los Angeles County history, federal prosecutors said.

``It's a big tax-evasion case,'' said Assistant U.S. Attorney Ranee Katzenstein. ``By the time he filed for bankruptcy, he owed $11 million in taxes, interest and penalties. It's a very large money-laundering case.''

Dr. Robert A. Grant, 75, a retired orthopedic surgeon who lives in Agoura Hills, pleaded guilty in federal court before U.S. District Judge Edward Rafeedie. Grant faces up to 40 years in federal prison when he is sentenced Sept. 8.

He filed for bankruptcy in October 1985, fraudulently concealing assets from the bankruptcy court and his creditors, including the Internal Revenue Service, prosecutors said.

``He entered the plea because he wanted to put the difficult charges behind him,'' said his attorney, Tom Brown. ``He regrets what happened and he regrets taking the advice of the two lawyers who got him involved in it.''

Grant has led ``an exemplary life as a physician and a surgeon,'' Brown added. ``He looks forward to receiving a fair sentence so he can finish his life with his family instead of dying in jail.''

The scheme Grant used involved establishing corporations owned and run by third parties, IRS spokesman Gary Tang said.

The corporations were designed to hold Grant's assets, including 88 acres of vacant land in Agoura Hills that Grant valued at $5 million in 1990, and $4.5 million from his pension fund and other liquid assets, Tang said.

The indictment charges that the liquid assets were transferred back to Grant after his bankruptcy case was completed through ``salary'' payments and other distributions made through the corporations.

Grant's debt to the IRS was an accumulation of taxes owed over a 10-year period going back as far as 1979 that totaled $7.4 million by 1993 and more than $11 million by the time Grant filed for bankruptcy in 1995, Tang said. Grant also owed California back taxes.

The money laundering charges relate to a series of transactions through which $4.5 million in liquid assets was transferred to the various ``nominee corporations'' and, eventually, back to Grant, Tang said. Also included in the money laundering charges is a recent transfer of title to the Agoura Hills land.

The indictment alleged that Grant was assisted in designing and carrying out the bankruptcy fraud by attorneys who referred him to an offshore company in the Cayman Islands for assistance in executing the scheme, Tang said.

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com