Jack Catain, Convicted Tarzana Racketeer, Dies

Jack Catain, a reputed organized-crime figure who had evaded prosecution for a decade until a conviction last November on federal racketeering charges, died Saturday morning at Encino Hospital, a hospital nursing supervisor said.

The 56-year-old Tarzana resident had been hospitalized for heart surgery, his lawyer, James A. Twitty, said. He was free on bail while awaiting sentencing after his Nov. 7 conviction on charges of conspiring to sell part of a $3.3-million cache of counterfeit $100 bills.

Last Tuesday, U.S. District Judge William P. Gray had delayed sentencing six months after learning that Catain was in the hospital. The nursing supervisor at Encino Hospital said Catain died in the cardiac intensive care unit, but no further details were announced.

Over the last 10 years Catain had been the focus of close scrutiny by local and federal law enforcement agencies. Federal organized crime investigators had linked Catain, son of a Chicago produce-market worker, to Mafia families in Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit and New York.

Catain maintained that he was not involved in organized crime and portrayed himself as a victim of the government’s efforts to justify an investigation of his activities that lasted several years.

Catain moved from Chicago to Los Angeles in the 1950s and founded an aluminum company. The company was acquired by Rusco, a Westwood-based conglomerate with annual revenues of $100 million that Catain eventually headed as president. He also was involved in businesses ranging from cosmetics and construction to exotic-car sales.

As head of Rusco, Catain maintained a high profile as a contributor to local charities.

Beneath that high profile, authorities insisted, was a clever criminal. Catain had been suspected in a variety of illegal enterprises, including ticket scalping, money laundering and extortion. Even so, his trial last year on federal counterfeiting charges was his first, as was the conviction.

Catain had a long history of medical problems. He had artificial hips, survived two heart attacks and was diagnosed as having terminal heart disease.

Ill health had caused the dismissal of previous federal counterfeiting charges against Catain. He had been indicted in 1982, but after numerous postponements, Judge Gray dismissed that case against him last April, saying he did not want to take the chance of Catain dying from the stress of a trial.

Gray’s dismissal was appealed to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, which remanded it to Gray for reconsideration. In the meantime, the government indicted Catain on the new counterfeiting charges.