O.C. Man Pleads Guilty in Honda Payoff Case : Courts: So far, 14 former executives and a dealer have admitted a role in the $10-million kickback scheme. Honda says it is a victim.

The brother of a former American Honda executive indicted in a bribery and kickback scam pleaded guilty Friday to funneling money to another former top executive of the company.

Gary Donald Josleyn, 46, a Yorba Linda resident, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud for sending a $100,000 check to Stanley James Cardiges, former senior vice president of American Honda Motor Co., and for making a $35,000 payment to another Honda official, Assistant U.S. Atty. Don Feith said.

Josleyn owned a Yorba Linda advertising firm that compiled brochures for Honda. His lawyer, Robert Ridge of Pittsburgh, said Josleyn was pressured into paying off Cardiges, a Laguna Hills resident.

Honda had no immediate comment Friday. The company and prosecutors have said that the auto maker is one of the victims of the crime.

Philip Israels of Sherman Oaks, Cardiges’ lawyer, said his client “certainly continues to maintain his innocence. . . . When the public understands the entire situation, people will see that my client is being made a scapegoat.”

Cardiges is scheduled to go to trial in Concord, N.H., on Feb. 7 along with Dennis Josleyn, a former West Coast sales manager for Honda; and John Billmyer, a North Carolina resident and former American Honda sales vice president.

Government prosecutors estimate that the felony conspiracy trial will last three months.

So far, 14 former American Honda executives and one former dealer have pleaded guilty in the case in which prosecutors said former executives received about $10 million in kickbacks. In exchange, the defendants were said to have funneled Hondas to dealers at a time when the vehicles were in high demand and short supply.

Josleyn is the first person who did not work for the company or sell its automobiles to have been charged in the case.

Ridge said Josleyn lost about $2,000 on the deal and that stopping payoffs and losing Honda’s business bankrupted him, for Honda represented much of his advertising business.

Ridge said he does not know if his client will be asked to testify against his brother, Dennis Josleyn.

Feith would not comment on Gary Josleyn’s business relationship with Billmyer, but he said Gary Josleyn made kickback payments of $30,000 to his own brother and $35,000 to Robert Rivers.