TELEMARKETER PLEADS GUILTY TO WIRE FRAUD.

Byline: Mary Beth Alexander Daily News Staff Writer

A 65-year-old Northridge man pleaded guilty Friday in federal court to running three businesses that fraudulently promised investors guaranteed sales of car-care products.

In connection with his plea, Kenneth Joseph Gilson admitted that from 1986 to 1992 he was part-owner and operator of three Van Nuys telemarketing companies that enticed customers to become distributors of large quantities of car-care products by falsely promising the products already had been sold to buyers for a profit, officials said.

The distributors paid $6.9 million for products that they were stuck with and unable to sell for the amount of their investments, officials said. Gilson and his companies - S & G Enterprises; Energo Inc. and Astro Petroleum - kept $2.6 million, court officials said.

Gilson pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Consuelo B. Marshall to wire fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy to commit the two felonies.

The pleas stem from charges that Gilson failed to report a bulk of the money he and his companies kept to the Internal Revenue Service, resulting in $610,000 in unpaid corporate and personal taxes, officials said.

A co-operator of the companies, Steven Smason, 63, of Sherman Oaks pleaded guilty in January to the same charges as Gilson. Both are scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 5.

Two telephone salespeople who worked for Gilson and Smason also have pleaded guilty to similar charges, officials said.

Patrick Tanzillo, 32, pleaded guilty Jan. 9 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and tax evasion. John Eaker, 48, pleaded guilty Jan. 22 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

The fraud was uncovered during a joint investigation by the Internal Revenue Service in Oxnard and the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Los Angeles.