A California Democratic occasion chief who was central to a wide-reaching corruption investigation in Anaheim involving the proposed sale of Angel Stadium has agreed to plead responsible to tried wire fraud, the U.S. Division of Justice mentioned Thursday.
Melahat Rafiei, 45, beforehand secretary for the California Democratic Occasion and a member of the Democratic Nationwide Committee, was a widely known political guide in Orange County.
In late 2019, in line with a plea settlement filed in federal court docket Thursday, Rafiei informed a business hashish firm proprietor that she would work to cross a marijuana associated ordinance in Anaheim that might profit the enterprise, in trade for a cost of at the very least $300,000.
What she didn’t inform the consumer was that she was already engaged on an ordinance on behalf of different individuals.
Rafiei additionally informed the consumer that she would give $200,000 of the cost to the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce and maintain solely $10,000 for her work. As an alternative, she meant to maintain $100,000, the settlement mentioned.
In accordance with the settlement, Rafiei instructed her consumer to pay the $300,000 by checks made out to varied entities. She deliberate to deposit the cash in accounts she managed and “transmit a portion of the funds to others.”
Rafiei has agreed to plead responsible to a single depend of tried wire fraud, which carries a most sentence of 20 years in jail. She is scheduled to seem in federal court docket in Santa Ana early subsequent month.
In a press release supplied to the Occasions by her legal professional, Rafiei declined to debate the specifics of the plea settlement.
“I’ll share my story, in due time,” she mentioned within the assertion. “For now, I’ll proceed with dignity and humility in direction of discovering peace and readability in my life.”
The plea deal, she mentioned, will “convey certainty, closure and a path ahead.”
After Rafiei was arrested in 2019, she started helping federal investigators. Together with her assist, the FBI realized that Anaheim was managed by a “small cadre of people,” together with former Mayor Harry Sidhu and Todd Ament, the previous president and CEO of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce.
The mayor was accused in a federal search warrant affidavit in Could of divulging confidential data to the Angels throughout the workforce’s negotiations with the town over the $320-million sale of Angel Stadium in hopes of receiving a million-dollar marketing campaign donation. The affidavit additionally alleged that Sidhu obstructed an Orange County grand jury investigation into the deal. Sidhu has not been charged and has denied wrongdoing.
The invention shook Anaheim’s political institution, prompting Sidhu’s resignation and resulting in legal costs towards Ament. The FBI accused Ament of plotting with an unnamed political guide to funnel Chamber of Commerce cash into Ament’s private financial institution accounts by laundering it by the guide’s public relations agency.
Ament agreed to plead responsible in June to submitting a false tax return, mendacity to a mortgage lender and two counts of wire fraud.
The scandal prompted the Anaheim Metropolis Council to void the stadium sale.
Rafiei didn’t plead to any bribery costs, however her settlement with prosecutors additionally outlines a bribery scheme.
Prosecutors mentioned within the settlement that Rafiei admitted to bribing two Irvine councilmembers in 2018 in trade for his or her settlement to introduce and cross an ordinance permitting her purchasers to open a retail hashish retailer within the metropolis.
It isn’t clear if the bribes have been finally accepted by the councilmembers, who usually are not named in court docket paperwork.
In Could 2018, Rafiei met with a medical hashish skilled, the particular person’s enterprise associate and an Irvine councilmember. They mentioned introducing an ordinance that might legalize retail medical hashish within the metropolis, in line with the plea settlement.
The councilmember informed them they deliberate to make use of a separate member of the town council to introduce the proposed legislation, the settlement mentioned.
Unbeknownst to Rafiei, the enterprise proprietor and associate have been performing as informants for the FBI.
After the assembly, Rafiei requested the hashish enterprise proprietor to pay her between $350,000 and $400,000 for brokering the ordinance.
She informed them that the primary councilmember they met with had requested for $200,000 and the second, who was allegedly going to introduce the ordinance, was in search of about $25,000, in line with the plea settlement.
To hide the bribe funds and circumvent disclosure necessities, Rafiei deliberate to enter into agreements with the politicians for “authorized companies,” prosecutors wrote within the plea settlement.
In accordance with the settlement, Rafiei informed the hashish skilled that this may circumvent disclosure necessities for elected officers as a result of authorized purchasers weren’t required to be recognized.
