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Former Lynwood City Councilman Arturo Reyes faces sentencing for corruption

Visa credit cards are arranged on a desk February 25, 2008 in San Francisco, California. Visa Inc. is hoping that its initial public offering could raise up to $19 billion and becoming  the largest IPO in U.S. history.
File photo of credit cards. Former Lynwood City Councilman Arturo Reyes accused two other former-Lynwood city councilmen of misusing city funds, saying they used a city credit card to pay for strip club fees.
(
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
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Former Lynwood City Councilman Arturo Reyes faces sentencing for corruption

A Los Angeles judge is expected to sentence a former Lynwood city councilman Monday on corruption charges.

Former Lynwood City Councilman Arturo Reyes pleaded guilty to grand theft for using city credit cards for personal use. He is among three councilmen who face corruption charges in Lynwood, which is located at the intersection of the 710 and 105 Freeways in southeast L.A. County.

The other two former councilmen are Louis Byrd and Fernando Pedroza. All resigned from the council after prosecutors with the L.A. County district attorney’s public integrity unit charged them with corruption.

Reyes testified against Byrd and Pedroza. He accused them of using a city credit card to pay for sex at a strip club during a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico, according to the Los Angeles Times. He said they filed it under “entertaining delegates” on city records. Rounds of golf, concerts and dinner at the House of Blues were all charged to the city, according to prosecutors.

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In addition to misuse of city funds, prosecutors are seeking to show that the former councilmen paid themselves thousands of dollars to sit on city commissions that did little work.

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