Embezzler of $280,000 Gets Prison Term

A former Woodland Hills mortgage broker who admitted embezzling more than $280,000 from investors was sentenced Tuesday to four years and five months in state prison.

Ardythe Raphael, who pleaded guilty to three counts of grand theft in Los Angeles Superior Court in January, bilked investors out of money loaned to a defunct firm called Tarzana Equities Inc., Deputy Dist. Atty. Jim Green said.

Green said Raphael used the money collected from investors to make loans to third parties but kept the money when the loans were repaid. The prosecutor, who works out of the county’s Major Fraud Division, said nine investors were named in the county’s action.

Green said investigators believe the scheme may have involved losses of up to $6 million.

Bankruptcy Request

Raphael’s mortgage loan business has been the subject of state investigations since it went out of business in 1981. In March, 1982, a Superior Court judge rejected the company’s request for protection under federal bankruptcy laws after Raphael refused to answer questions about the company’s business, including the whereabouts of its books and records.

At the same time, the state Real Estate Department accused Raphael and two partners of breaking state law by illegally converting an undetermined amount of more than $4 million received from investors in second-trust deeds.

In April, 1983, Raphael was barred by a Superior Court judge from using her real estate license to sell or deal in real estate.

Raphael, formerly of Bel-Air and now a resident of Incline Village, Nev., was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Gordon Ringer.