Stephanie Pater

Pater joined Tribune Co. as director of real estate in January 2008, soon after billionaire real estate developer Sam Zell took the company private in a heavily leveraged $8.2 billion deal. Her role with the company included seeking buyers for the Tribune Tower and Times Mirror Square in Los Angeles before the properties were taken off the market in 2009. Pater left the company in 2010 to form Catalyst Group, which was hired by Tribune Co., identified only as Company A in the indictment, to oversee its real estate holdings for a monthly fee. Sources have confirmed that Tribune Co. is Company A. In March 2010, Pater created a fake contract between Tribune Co. and Catalyst that directed an unnamed company to pay commissions to her company, according to the indictment. The scheme took place over a period of about six months, according to the indictment.