A federal appeals court tossed out the fraud conviction and prison sentence of the former chief executive of an online real estate information site based in Westlake Village. Stuart Wolff, ex-CEO of Homestore Inc., was ordered to stand trial a second time because the judge in the first trial had a conflict of interest, Bloomberg News reported. Homestore changed its name to Move Inc. in spring 2006. The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled U.S. District Judge Percy Anderson’s ownership of AOL stock constituted a “financial interest in the subject matter in controversy,” and should have disqualified himself, Bloomberg reported. Prosecutors claimed AOL was a party to most of the fraudulent transactions with which Wolff was charged, Bloomberg said. Prosecutors claimed Homestore used intermediary vendors to pay companies including AOL to buy advertising on Homestore’s website. Homestore improperly recorded revenue from the deals without disclosing them to investors and regulators, prosecutors claimed. Wolff was sentenced to 15 years in prison in October, Bloomberg said.
