WESTLAKE : Man Admits Guilt in Phony Loan Scheme

A Riverside businessman who set out in the mid-1980s to build the largest chain of video stores in the nation pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Monday to charges that he conspired with the president of the defunct Westlake Thrift and Loan and others to set up phony loan schemes.

Walter Vladovich, 55, one of the central figures in an allegedly fraudulent scheme in which $5 million in loans from the Westlake thrift was channeled into a Riverside company, Leader Video, will be sentenced in Los Angeles on July 23.

Vladovich, who has been charged with nine counts of conspiracy, unlawful payment of bribes and bank fraud, pleaded innocent in December. He could face up to 45 years in prison and $2.25 million in fines.

A variety of sources have alleged in interviews with The Times that Vladovich, who also owned a mortgage firm, Pioneer Acceptance Corp. of Riverside, began his fraudulent activities in 1984 with a banker, Henry Schneider, vice president of First United Thrift and Loan of San Francisco.

Vladovich is accused of submitting false loan packages to Schneider for video store franchises that purportedly were going to be operated by some of his own employees and others.

According to Assistant U.S. Atty. David C. Scheper, Vladovich received about $550,000 in loans from First United and paid $15,000 in bribes to Schneider. After meeting with Steven Smith, then the vice president of the Westlake Thrift, Vladovich allegedly came up with a different scheme that involved obtaining loan packages through Pioneer Acceptance.

Smith, who later became the president of the now-defunct thrift, and Schneider, have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud charges. Both men are scheduled to be sentenced on April 9.