The Brief

It’s been more than two years since the former head of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce pleaded guilty to federal charges for his role in the corruption scandal that erupted in Anaheim two years ago.

Todd Ament, who in 2022 admitted to wire fraud, lying to a mortgage lender, lying on his tax returns and other crimes, faces a possible sentence of 30 years or more in prison, according to the US Department of Justice.

But, for now, he remains free on bail.

What the federal complaint outlined

In a federal complaint filed in 2022, prosecutors identified Ament as one of the ringleaders of a “cabal” of elected officials, political consultants and business leaders who worked behind the scenes to influence Anaheim politics. Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Ament laundered money meant for the Chamber of Commerce to his coffers. Prosecutors said he would use that money later to defraud a mortgage lender to buy a home in Big Bear.

He is also accused of orchestrating meetings between power brokers to discuss public matters in private.

Former Anaheim mayor Harry Sidhu also pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the corruption scandal, specifically related to the $320 million sale of Angels stadium. Like Ament, he has yet to be sentenced.

Some politicians and residents are wondering the reasons for the delay.

“I think for those of us who are observing and paying attention it just feels we're just back to where a lot of this really started,” said former councilmember Jose Moreno.

He said there has been “radio silence” at City Hall about the corruption scandal and that it's been “business as usual.”

Why the sentencing delay?

LAist reached out to attorneys on both sides of the case to understand why the sentencing is now going on years. Prosecutors refused to comment. Ament’s defense lawyer, Salvatore Ciulla, did not respond to requests for comment. As of Monday, the docket report for Ament’s case listed the sentencing date as Dec. 9, 2022, but it did not show whether the hearing has been rescheduled.

Former federal prosecutors, who are not tied to Ament’s case, told LAist there are likely several reasons for the delay: The investigation is still ongoing and prosecutors are hoping to leverage Ament to charge other possible defendants.

Experts said sentencing can be delayed if Ament is cooperating with prosecutors.

Larry Rosenthal, former federal prosecutor and professor of law at Chapman University, said Ament’s plea agreement has a cooperation provision built in. That means if he cooperates with prosecutors, answering questions, providing documents and even wearing a wire if they require it, he could have his sentence reduced.

“My practice when I was a prosecutor is that I wanted individuals who I expected to testify in future cases not to be sentenced, so that the sentencing would remain hanging over them,” Rosenthal said.

Sometimes, he said, judges will ask lawyers specific reasons to delay a sentencing. Prosecutors could provide this information in a sealed file if they don’t want to alert people that the investigation is ongoing, Rosenthal said.

Rosenthal said sentencing can also be delayed if a defendant has breached the cooperation provision, for example, by providing false information. If that happens, a plea agreement or parts of it can be revoked.

Why the delay doesn't surprise experts

Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola Law School and a former federal prosecutor, said it's not surprising that Ament’s sentencing is taking long. If he is cooperating with prosecutors, the authorities will use him “to look at other possible defendants, and they want to make sure they get the full extent of his information before he's sentenced.”

She said sentencing could take “months and even years” because prosecutors will go back and forth to confirm information with Ament, and “if the cooperation involves him testifying against others, then you have to build in the time for those charges as well as trials.”

Because multiple parties including Ament and former Mayor Harry Sidhu are involved, Levenson said, prosecutors will leverage them to further the investigation.

“He's (Ament) probably the tip of the iceberg,” she said. “It involved people who are of high political power, and for that reason, not only do they (prosecutors) have to be careful how they do the investigation, but they must make sure that they get to the heart of it, who is really benefiting from it, and who's calling the shots.”

The backstory

Catch up on what we know about Ament and the corruption scandal:

• In a 2022 federal criminal complaint, Ament was named a ringleader of a “cabal” that “wielded significant influence over the inner workings of Anaheim’s government.” Ament and an unnamed political consultant were accused of diverting funds from the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce to Ament’s personal coffers, laundered through the consultant’s firm. Prosecutors said Ament used the funds to “fraudulently secure financing” for a second home in Big Bear. 
• Ament also agreed to a plea bargain in which he admitted to his role in attempting to defraud a cannabis company that wanted to do business in the city. 
• An independent report commissioned by the city of Anaheim found that city leaders awarded large contracts to the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, which Ament headed, "with little or no oversight or meaningful deliverables."
• According to the report, Ament and the former mayor of Anaheim engaged in “influence peddling,” meaning that. anyone who wanted an audience with the mayor would have to meet Ament first. The Anaheim Chamber of Commerce collected residents' personal information and used it to make unsolicited calls about political campaigns. 
• A state audit earlier this year showed that the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce misused public funds for political lobbying and to support Disneyland-friendly candidates. 
• An LAist report earlier this year revealed the FBI is investigating Santa Ana Unified School District's agreements with companies that provided COVID-19 testing to students. Some of the companies were owned or affiliated with Ament.

Critics say it's transparency without reforms

Then-Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu at an Orange County parade just a few months before he resigned.

(

Daniel Knighton

/

Getty Images

)

Sidhu, the former mayor of Anaheim, pleaded guilty in 2023 to charges of obstructing an FBI investigation, lying to federal authorities and cheating on his taxes, according to court documents. In his plea agreement, Sidhu admitted to passing confidential information related to the sale of the stadium to the owners of the Angels baseball team, who were trying to buy it.

Last month, the Angels baseball team owners, received a settlement from the city because the stadium deal did not go through.

Moreno, the former council member, called the settlement “really disappointing” as it was the Angels’ consultant who received illegal information from the city.

He also said council members and the current mayor continue to refuse to talk to the public about the corruption scandal.

LAist has reached out to Anaheim Mayor Ashleigh Aitken for comment. She has not yet responded.

Moreno said the current City Council has made moves to improve transparency by sharing information publicly about meetings with corporate entities, like Disney.

The criminal complaint references an unnamed company federal investigators allege was a major player in the so-called "cabal." The Los Angeles Times identified that company as Disneyland Resort, but it has not been charged in connection with the scandal.

Moreno told LAist that the changes by the City Council are not enough.

It's just transparency without reforms, he said.

More sentencing delays

Ament is not the only one whose sentencing hearing has been delayed.

Former Orange County Democratic Party leader Melahat Rafiei, who revealed she was a cooperating witness in the FBI investigation, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud. She has not been sentenced yet either. Rafiei was expected to be sentenced in May, but that hearing has also been delayed with recent developments in the case sealed.

Alaleh Kamran, Rafiei’s attorney, said cases are often postponed continued to accommodate the attorneys' schedules.

What we know about Rafiei's role

• In 2022, Rafiei, then a high ranking Democratic Party official, revealed to the Voice of OC that she was a cooperating witness into the FBI’s probe of corruption in Anaheim. She would later resign from her positions. 
• Then in 2023, she agreed to a plea deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for attempting to defraud one of her clients.
• In the plea agreement, Rafiei is accused of telling a commercial cannabis company she would work to have Anaheim pass a cannabis ordinance in exchange for a payment of $300,000. Prosecutors say she falsely said two thirds of that payment would go to the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, instead Rafiei intended to split the money between herself and an unnamed associate. 
• In the plea agreement, she is also accused of attempting to bribe two Irvine council members in 2018 with at least $225,000 to pass a cannabis ordinance which would have allowed her clients, a cannabis company, to open offices in the city. The bribes were to be passed off as legal payments as part of Rafiei’s political consulting work. Rafiei was not charged in relation to the scheme and the two council members were not named in the agreement. 

The cases involving Ament and Rafiei have both been assigned to the same judge.

When that happens, Rosenthal said, it's because prosecutors have identified the cases as related. It also signals that the investigation may be ongoing and more charges may be expected against more defendants.

This story first appeared on Long Beach Post.

What if the scariest thing to happen this Halloween is…not preparing for the upcoming midterm election?

To combat any jump scares around local ballot measures, Khmer Girls in Action and We Are California are teaming up to host a Party to the Polls: Haunted Mansion on Saturday, Oct. 24, from 2 to 6 p.m.

“We are combining political education and the Halloween spirit because, you know, elections are scary sometimes,” said Kelliana Lim, Communications Coordinator for Khmer Girls in Action. KGA, a youth-led community nonprofit in Long Beach, has hosted a haunted house/maze event every election season since 2010.

Student members and KGA staffers select ballot measures they feel affect their community the most and create an immersive haunted house based on those issues. The goal, Lim said, is to provide a fun way for community members to better understand what is going on this election season.

“The haunted maze really showcases a really fun ‘educ-tainment’ type of event for the community to understand how certain ballot measures will impact them and young people,” Lim said.

Khmer Girls in Action’s haunted house from October 2024. The theme was “A Nightmare on Sixth Street.”

(

Photo courtesy of Khmer Girls in Action

)

This year, KGA honed their haunted house on three ballot measures: Proposition 3, which would tax top earners in the state to fund healthcare and education. Proposition 39, which would require California voters to present government-issued identification when voting at the polls. And Proposition 43, which would change the state’s constitution to require local ballot measures related to extending, increasing or proposing specific taxes driven by citizens to receive a two-thirds vote.

Saturday’s haunted house will feature a spooky maze of rooms visitors will trek through as they are greeted by ghosts and goblins who will foreshadow what kind of impact these ballot measures could have on their community.

This year, KGA is partnering with We Are California, a coalition of advocacy groups across the state, to host a ballot party during the haunted house. Visitors are encouraged to bring their ballot to the haunt, and on a separate floor from the ghouls and goblins, they can get their questions answered.

Aaron Robertson, a Senior Director of Coalition for Catalyst California — the nonprofit, civil rights organization behind We Are California, said their group provides toolkits and other resources to KGA and other groups across the state hosting ballot parties.

“One of the cool things about this campaign is that it is very distributed,” Robertson said. “We’ve been providing resources and toolkits for about 500 ballot parties across the state.” But Robertson said organizations like KGA really take the lead on what these ballot education events look and feel like. Some groups did a 5K run to the polls; others did dance parties and lucha libre events.

We Are California also provides legal trainers who teach community members to become vote protectors on Election Day. Vote protectors identify any intimidation efforts at polling sites.

“We have a centralized reporting mechanism where we are gathering that information and working with the A.G.’s office to triage a response,” Robertson said. Last week, KGA, along with Long Beach Forward, trained community volunteers who signed up to be vote protectors.

“Some people really want to show up for their community and [becoming a vote protector] is a way to do that — they want to go to places that are most at risk for voter intimidation,” Robertson said.

As part of the haunted house, Khmer Girls in Action also provides face painting, a donut-eating contest and trunk-or-treat.

(

Photo courtesy of Khmer Girls in Action

)

Beyond ballot education, Saturday’s haunted house will also have a trunk-or-treat in the Youth Movement Education Center parking lot. There will also be face painting, a donut-eating contest, a costume contest, music and a party area in case some people “are too scared to go inside,” Lim said.

To learn more about Khmer Girls in Action and their haunted house event on Saturday, Oct. 25, visit their website.

The question Proposition 2 poses to California voters is simple: Should the state be able to save more money when its economy is booming?

The ballot measure, dubbed the Save for California’s Future Act, seeks to shore up California’s rainy day fund by allowing state lawmakers to sock away up to 20% of the state’s general fund tax revenue — double the current ceiling of 10%.

It would also require the state to save a bigger share of the gains when revenue is growing faster.

Proponents, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers, say the state needs a bigger savings account to weather its volatile economy.

Because California’s tax revenue depends so much on wealthy residents’ stock earnings, the state budget is often caught in a boom-or-bust cycle at the mercy of the market. In recent years, the state has seen robust tax revenue from an AI-fueled economy, which has helped state leaders avoid or delay painful cuts to social services even when they projected significant deficits. But economists have consistently warned the boom may not last, and the federal budget cuts to healthcare and welfare programs this year deepened that uncertainty.

Supporters pitched Prop. 2 as a common sense solution, noting the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, which advises state lawmakers, has long recommended the state set aside funding for downturns. The measure is endorsed by a bipartisan coalition of groups, including labor unions, hospital associations and chambers of commerce.

“It doubles the size of the state’s rainy day fund and requires California to save more during strong budget years, so we’re not caught flat-footed when the next downturn hits,” wrote Assembly Budget Chair Jesse Gabriel, an Encino Democrat, and Assembly Appropriations Vice Chair Josh Hoover, a Folsom Republican and the only GOP lawmaker to vote for the measure.

Most Republican lawmakers opposed Prop. 2, stating that the state should use its excess revenue to give taxpayers refunds instead of saving it. They argue that state government already spends too much and that a bigger reserve would merely give state leaders more to spend.

“When they say we're here for fiscal responsibility, it's like the devil offering a Bible study. Don't buy it,” said Assemblymember Carl DeMaio, a San Diego Republican.

How long have we had a rainy day fund?

Before 2014, California leaders and voters established reserve funds several times to weather financial storms, but ended up quickly withdrawing most of those funds, leaving the state with very little savings on hand, according to the legislative analyst.

In 2004, following the dot-com bust, voters overwhelmingly supported Prop. 58, a bipartisan ballot measure that required the state to establish a budget stabilization account and make annual deposits into the fund.

But lawmakers swiftly depleted the fund during the early months of the Great Recession and were forced to make steep spending cuts, borrow money at expensive rates and use accounting gimmicks to weather the rest of the crisis. Under then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, the state Legislature slashed health and welfare funding, scrapped tax credits, furloughed state employees and delayed payments to schools and local governments.

In 2014, as the state’s economy rebounded, then-Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, urged that the state save more. He and the Legislature championed Prop. 2, a bipartisan ballot measure that required the state to save more aggressively and limited when lawmakers could withdraw from the reserves. Nearly 70% of voters approved it.

“When the pendulum swings again, we won’t be forced to raise taxes or make the kinds of harsh cuts that were all too common in recent years,” Brown said in a 2014 op-ed stumping for the reform.

The law requires the state to set aside 1.5% of its general fund revenue and any spikes in capital gains tax revenue each year, with half deposited into the reserves and the other half to pay down state debts. It also made it harder for the state to spend the reserves and carved out portions of the savings for schools.

Under the law, state lawmakers can withdraw from the reserves only when the governor declares a budget emergency and decides that the state is not expected to collect enough revenue in the upcoming fiscal year to match the spending in the three previous budget years.

A majority of state lawmakers must vote to ratify the budget emergency. If approved, they are allowed to withdraw up to half of the rainy day fund balance at once, unless they already withdrew half the balance in the previous budget year and still need to take out more. There are no limits on what lawmakers can use the funds for.

Bigger reserve = more to spend?

Prop. 2 would maintain those withdrawal rules, which critics say would give future governors broad authority to spend down the reserves instead of reining in spending.

“The rainy day fund can be invaded even when it’s not raining, simply because spending isn’t as high as it was within the prior three years,” wrote David Crane, a former economic adviser to Schwarzenegger and founder of Govern for California, a nonprofit fundraising powerhouse that aims to “counter special interest influence.”

“Unless the withdrawal rules change, a larger reserve just lets governors bake in spending based on optimistic forecasts, knowing they can always dip into reserves if revenue falls short.”

In an interview with CalMatters, Gabriel stressed that voters approved those rules in 2014 and emphasized that the measure has bipartisan support. He also dismissed the criticism that the state should just spend less during downturns, likening it to telling families to eat less or downsize instead of dipping into their savings when they fall on hard times.

“I think (the concern) is very misplaced,” he said. “(Prop. 2) is recommended by the experts, because it matches the common-sense wisdom of California families.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and was republished under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives license.

Inglewood city leaders broke ground on a new shuttle bus network, planting ceremonial brass shovels in the dirt outside a Market Street shopping center on Wednesday morning.

They took turns at a microphone praising the $287.5 million Inglewood Transit Connector, which will ferry visitors between the Downtown Inglewood Metro K Line Station and the city’s stadium district. Officials hope the project will jump-start the struggling Market Street shopping corridor. 

“We always said that we were going to make Inglewood the city to drive to and not through, and we’re doing that today,” Councilmember Alex Padilla said. 

Inglewood has transformed into a global entertainment magnet over the last decade, pulling in Super Bowls, World Cup matches and megastar musicians. Locals, though, have protested the costs of the rapid development — traffic jams, rising living costs, old haunts demolished — and asked for more ways to tap into the economic benefits.

City officials say the shuttle bus network will help with some of those issues by alleviating traffic jams and driving visitors to spend their dollars at local businesses. Not everyone is convinced. 

Just a few hundred yards from the ceremony, Amelia Hernandez and her team were packing boxes at Selwyn Jewelers, one of the two dozen businesses at the corner of Market Street and Florence Avenue the city took over through eminent domain earlier this year. The city plans to demolish the shopping center to make way for a 1,000-space parking garage, a bus plaza and a pedestrian bridge crossing Florence to the Downtown Inglewood K Line station. 

The jeweler said she’s skeptical the new shuttle system will actually mean more business for local shops, especially those like hers that are more targeted to residents than visitors. 

“Everybody comes, parks and leaves,” she said. “What do they expect? [Stadium visitors] are going to the notary public? They’re going to a hair salon?”

Construction is expected to begin in November, planners say

Wednesday’s ceremony capped nearly a decade of planning for the Inglewood Transit Connector. City officials first pitched it as a $2 billion automated rail line, but pared down their plans to a shuttle bus system after federal funding hit a wall.  

Actual construction is set to start in the first week of November, planners say, and the first buses are scheduled to roll out down dedicated lanes just ahead of the 2028 Olympics. City officials say they hope to bring back automated rail line plans in the future. 

Mayor James Butts said the shuttles are only planned to run on event days — Inglewood’s three major venues have hundreds of events between them — and that the city hasn’t yet picked a vendor to run the actual shuttles. The mayor said the city expects to move 10,000 people through the hub on event days.

Eli Lipmen, executive director of the nonprofit Move LA, is one of the transportation activists pushing for the region to tighten up its transportation network ahead of the Olympics. He said that while the city still has a lot of work to do, he is excited to see the shuttle system roll out to provide an alternative to vehicle traffic.

“This station, this area, has needed a transit hub for a very long time,” he said.

City officials say they’re working to relocate displaced businesses

A few shops were still open in the shopping center on Wednesday, but most of the windows were dark or papered over. 

Project planners said the city has found new spots for half of the two dozen businesses displaced from the bulldozed shopping center and that it is also working with the hair stylists that rent chairs at salons in the center. 

Businesses like Red’s Flavor Table and Randy’s Donuts & Chinese Food will be relocating to new digs on Market Street, according to project planners. CVS Pharmacy opened a new store across the street. Selwyn Jewelers is moving to a space a few blocks away.

Hernandez, the owner of Selwyn Jewelers, said the relocation process has been horrific and was poorly planned. 

“I’m just left with a whole bunch of ill feelings,” she said. 

Other business owners praised the city’s work in a series of short videos.

“Although we are sad to be leaving our current location, we’re happy to continue to stay in Inglewood,” said Sylvia Hollins, manager of Red’s Flavor Table. “We’re going to be on Market Street at a bigger and better location.”

The post Inglewood breaks ground on a new $287.5M stadium shuttle network appeared first on LA Local.

A federal judge in California is putting limits on pre-election field operations conducted by the Department of Homeland Security that the agency says is aimed at trying to find noncitizens who have illegally voted in nine states.

In recent weeks, armed Homeland Security Investigations officers have carried out field operations and visited homes to interview people suspected of illegally voting as noncitizens. The targets can include people who became citizens but voted before they naturalized.

In a 19-page order late Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Araceli Martínez-Olguín, an appointee of President Joe Biden, wrote that the federal government was using "flawed" data in the initiative and that its efforts likely violated the Voting Rights Act, which bars voter intimidation.

Martínez-Olguín referenced a disclosure last month from a U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services whistleblower that alleged rushed efforts to match data to create a target list of potential noncitizens on voter rolls, and that the list includes U.S. citizens. She also pointed to HSI's social media posts, including one that showed agents handcuffing a California man accused of unlawfully registering to vote.

The judge wrote that the government's use of unreliable and incomplete data along with highly publicized arrests "lead to an objectively reasonable fear of law enforcement entanglements that intimidates citizens from urging or aiding others in exercising their right to vote."

HSI field operations were planned in California, Connecticut, Georgia, Missouri, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Washington and Wisconsin, according to documents produced in the case and CNN reporting.

Martínez-Olguín barred DHS officers in those states from conducting field operations targeting people they "know, suspect, or should reasonably know or suspect are U.S. citizens," or that are based "wholly" on USCIS matching data without further investigation.

In a declaration, USCIS official Nicolas Bartell had told the judge his team manually reviews records before referring them to HSI, but acknowledged the "low possibility" citizens could be "erroneously identified as potential aliens" in federal records. He wrote the risks were mitigated by safeguards his office takes "and any remaining risks were outweighed by the need to support the agency's law-enforcement and election-integrity mission."

It's unclear how much of an effect the judge's order will have on the federal government's highly publicized campaign to find noncitizen voters.

States reviews and audits have consistently found voting by noncitizens to be extremely rare.

"DHS is laser focused on identifying, prosecuting, and removing aliens who vote and dilute the votes of U.S. citizens. ONLY Americans should elect American leaders," the agency wrote in a statement. "We have no plans to question or investigate people we believe to be U.S. citizens."

The order is set to take effect on Friday and would be in effect through election night, though the federal government could appeal.

The judge's ruling came in a lawsuit filed last month by a coalition that includes San Francisco and Santa Clara counties, the city of San Francisco, nursing unions and Voto Latino Foundation. Protect Democracy and the National Immigration Law Center are litigating the case against the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice.

"Today, the courts affirmed a vital principle of our democracy: Voting is a fundamental right that citizens — whether born here or naturalized — should be able to exercise without armed government agents harassing them," Beau Tremitiere, a lawyer with Protect Democracy, said in a statement.

"It was clear from the start that DHS built its lists on bad data, never checked how often it was wrong, and recklessly sent agents to people's homes weeks before an election," he added.

A court filing by the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United described naturalized citizen members who no longer wanted to attend political rallies, sign up to be election poll workers, or vote in person because of the federal operations.

The order comes as the Department of Justice is suing California and demanding the state segregate 20,000 ballots from people federal officials say they believe are "likely" noncitizens.

A preliminary review of a sample of that list by Los Angeles County election officials found many of the registrations were canceled, inactive or had no voting history, and some pertained to people who indicated they were born in the U.S.

The DOJ announced charges against 28 green card holders across the state on Monday who are accused of illegally voting or registering to vote.
Copyright 2026 NPR