LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A convicted bank robber was sentenced to time
served, restitution and supervised release for stealing a nearly $1.4 million
tax refund check from billionaire Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren, court papers
obtained today show.
Moundir Kamil, 45, was ordered to pay $1.1 million in restitution and
serve three years of supervised release. U.S. District Judge Margaret M. Morrow
also sentenced the defendant to the 99 days in federal detention he previously
served.
When Kamil was sentenced on March 23, Morrow closed the hearing to the
public and no further information was immediately available from the U.S.
Attorney’s Office. The judgment and commitment order from that hearing was made
public on Friday.
Federal prosecutors said Kamil, who was dubbed the “Give Me More
Bandit” for his part in a series of 2003 bank robberies, obtained Bren’s
Social Security number, date of birth and other personal information and opened
an account in his name in February 2010 at an East West Bank branch in
Cerritos.
Between February and April 2010, Kamil transferred or withdrew about
$1.1 million from the phony bank account and transferred the funds to bank
accounts in other names, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Bren, the Orange County-based investor who is the majority owner of
Manhattan’s MetLife Building, is worth $15.2 billion, making him the country’s
richest real estate investor, according to Forbes.
His firm, The Irvine Co., owns 500 office properties, 50,000 apartments
and more than 40 shopping centers.
Kamil pleaded guilty in June 2011 to a federal bank fraud charge.
