Citing insufficient evidence, a federal judge in Los Angeles today acquitted a Valencia hedge fund manager and his mother-in-law of charges of obstructing a federal investigation into a land sale reports the Daily News.

After calling the testimony of the government’s star witness “an abomination … maybe the worst I’ve ever seen,” U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson acquitted Keith Gary Gilabert, 37, and 65-year-old Hiromi Seele.

Gilabert and Seele were indicted by a federal grand jury last year, accused of ordering San Fernando Valley mortgage broker Bradley Gerszt to lie to FBI agents investigating the sale of two plots of land in Valencia.

The proceeds of the land sales were supposed to go to the FBI as part of a settlement between Gilabert and the federal government, Gerszt testified Monday.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Beong-Soo Kim had no comment after today’s hearing.

Gilabert, the founder of Capital Management Group, faced up to 10 years in federal prison had he been convicted on the obstruction of justice charge. But he remains in custody because he pleaded guilty last year to leading a fraudulent investment fund that lost investors about $7 million.

Read it here: Judge drops case against Valencia Hedge Fund Manager