Condo leader gets jail sentence

A Newport Beach man was sentenced to two years in prison Friday and ordered to pay hundreds of thousands in restitution to a local apartment complex association that he had been stealing from when he was its leader.

Peter Kontos, 36, pleaded guilty Dec. 12 to grand theft, 39 counts of forgery and 64 counts of money laundering.

In 2003, Kontos was the president of the Villa Point Condominium Assn. in Newport Beach. While president, Kontos forged the treasurer’s signature on 39 checks that he gave to various contractors, who would then cash them and kick back to him most of the money. Many of the contractors testified during Kontos’ civil trial that they did little to no work for the money, prosecutors said.

The court ordered Kontos to pay $337,000 in restitution and more than $200,000 of that is going back to the association.

Kontos’ sentence also involved a pair of 2006 incidents in which he blinded police helicopter pilots with a laser from the ground. In March 2006, Kontos flashed a laser into the cockpit of a police helicopter heading back to Newport Beach Police Department. The light gave one of the pilots a headache for the rest of his shift and irritated his eyes, officials said.

Fewer than two weeks later, prosecutors said, Kontos was at it again. This time, however, police were able to track the source of the laser back to his Villa Point apartment, where police searched his home and arrested him. Officers found more than $135,000, a ninja throwing-star and the laser inside his apartment.