AUTOS

Ex-Honda Dealer Sentenced in Bribery Case: Rancho Mirage resident Peter Epsteen was sentenced to six months in federal prison and was fined $200,000 for his role in what prosecutors have called the nation’s largest commercial bribery case. In all, 22 people, including 18 former executives of Torrance-based American Honda Motor Co., have been convicted of felonies in the case. Epsteen, who owned a string of five Honda and Acura dealerships in Southern California and New Mexico, previously had pleaded guilty to perjury. Also sentenced was Raymond Hovsepian, a Haverford, Pa., lawyer who had pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit mail fraud. He was sentenced to six months in prison and was fined $5,000. The two pleaded guilty in a major kickback scheme in which dealers in 30 states gave executives of American Honda up to $15 million in cash and gifts in exchange for hot-selling cars and franchises from 1979 through 1992.