Legal
Tuesday 19 January 2021
The following article is an example of corruption by government officials and greedy business executives. But is also details how investigators and/or real journalists from a "News Organization" discovered the corruption and eventually the DA's office go
The following article is an example of corruption by government officials and greedy business executives. But is also details how investigators and/or real journalists from a "News Organization" discovered the corruption and eventually the DA's office got involved.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office launched simultaneous raids on at least half a dozen homes and offices this week as part of a corruption probe into a failed solar project that cost the City of Industry $20 million and left taxpayers with nothing to show for it.
The district attorney’s Bureau of Investigation served search warrants across Southern California on Wednesday morning, Aug. 12, with investigators hitting homes in Whittier, Cerritos, La Jolla and at least one office in Los Angeles. The figures swept up in the raids include former state Sen. Frank Hill, businessman William Barkett and Industry’s former city manager, Paul Philips, among others.
The Cordoba Corp., a major development firm that oversaw the proposed project for Industry, also was raided, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
A Southern California News Group investigation in 2017 found numerous erroneous and questionable billings submitted to the city by San Gabriel Valley Water and Power, a company set up by Barkett and Hill. The spending included more than $100,000 in invoices on the letterhead of a law firm that had shut down a year before the work occurred.
Hill, a former state senator previously convicted on corruption charges in the 1990s, wielded extensive influence behind the scenes in Industry after he helped a new majority secure seats on the City Council during a tumultuous election in 2015. Court filings indicate the Whittier Republican, who by his own admission brought the solar project to Industry, owned a stake in San Gabriel Valley Water and Power through another company, Mojave Green Power LLC.
At the same time, he collected monthly payments indirectly from Industry as a consultant for the Cordoba Corp., a contractor hired by the city to oversee its investment in the proposal.
To read more, go to: THIS LINK
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office launched simultaneous raids on at least half a dozen homes and offices this week as part of a corruption probe into a failed solar project that cost the City of Industry $20 million and left taxpayers with nothing to show for it.
The district attorney’s Bureau of Investigation served search warrants across Southern California on Wednesday morning, Aug. 12, with investigators hitting homes in Whittier, Cerritos, La Jolla and at least one office in Los Angeles. The figures swept up in the raids include former state Sen. Frank Hill, businessman William Barkett and Industry’s former city manager, Paul Philips, among others.
The Cordoba Corp., a major development firm that oversaw the proposed project for Industry, also was raided, according to the District Attorney’s Office.
A Southern California News Group investigation in 2017 found numerous erroneous and questionable billings submitted to the city by San Gabriel Valley Water and Power, a company set up by Barkett and Hill. The spending included more than $100,000 in invoices on the letterhead of a law firm that had shut down a year before the work occurred.
Hill, a former state senator previously convicted on corruption charges in the 1990s, wielded extensive influence behind the scenes in Industry after he helped a new majority secure seats on the City Council during a tumultuous election in 2015. Court filings indicate the Whittier Republican, who by his own admission brought the solar project to Industry, owned a stake in San Gabriel Valley Water and Power through another company, Mojave Green Power LLC.
At the same time, he collected monthly payments indirectly from Industry as a consultant for the Cordoba Corp., a contractor hired by the city to oversee its investment in the proposal.
To read more, go to: THIS LINK
