October 17th, 2011 at 8:30am
Another Los Angeles City employee has been fired for corruption, but unlike private sector employees who lose their jobs for dishonesty, will nevertheless be able to console herself with her pension.
Eun Chavis, a clerk typist at the Los Angeles Housing Department, was charged in 2010 with 11 felony bribery counts in connection with demanding bribes of at least $43,000 from Korean-American landlords to fix their problems with the City. For her crimes, Chavis was allowed to plead no contest to just one felony count, spent less than a month in County jail, finished her sentence in the comfort of her home with a monitoring bracelet and retains her $31,056-a-year city pension.
And the City says it is broke . . .
Her husband, Frank Max Chavis, will face five bribery counts of his own if he is ever caught and extradited from South Korea.
On the other hand, at least one of Eun Chavis’ victims has lost his apartment building to foreclosure. Nobody is paying him a $31,056 annuity.
If you are unhappy with the result prosecutors from the L.A. County District Attorney’s Office got on behalf of their victims – including taxpayers - you are not alone. Lt. Matthew St. Pierre, head of the LAPD Commercial Crimes Division, said that in his opinion, “The punishment didn’t fit the crime.”
Read the original article in the Los Angeles Times.
October 6th, 2011 at 8:33am
Forty-nine year-old Hugo Gonzalez, a now-former Los Angeles Building and Safety inspector, has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for demanding and taking bribes. Gonzalez’ co-worker, Raoul Germain, 60, received the same sentence last week.
Gonzalez was was recorded by an undercover FBI investigator as well as a confidential informant, who reported that bribery and corruption at Building and Safety were “systemic.”
U.S. District Court Judge Christina A. Snyder required Gonzalez to repay the $9,000 he had taken in bribes related to a construction project in South Los Angeles.
A federal grand jury issued a subpoena in April regarding a dozen Building and Safety employees, including Germain and Gonzalez. The FBI’s investigation is ongoing.
Read the original article in the Los Angeles Times.
September 20th, 2011 at 1:43pm
Fired Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety inspector Raoul Germain, who was caught on camera take bribes, has been sentenced to 21 months in prison.
Germain, 60, was one of two inspectors caught after their “supplemental income” activities were reported to the FBI. According to his attorney, German was “remorseful” but uncooperative with the feds, who are still investigating allegations of corruption in Building and Safety. Attorney Steven Cron said Germain’s lack of cooperation was due to fears for his safety, but perhaps another explanation is that Germain didn’t want to bust his buddies.
U.S. District Judge Christina A. Snyder imposed the full sentence, rejecting Germain’s claim for leniency due to his “age.”
In my opinion, if you’re young enough to break the law, you’re young enough to accept the consequences.
Hugo Gonzalez, another L.A. Building and Safety inspector caught taking bribes, has yet to be sentenced.
The federal corruption investigation of this powerful Los Angeles agency is ongoing.
Read the original article in the Los Angeles Times.
June 2nd, 2011 at 11:56pm
Apartment owner Kyong Ho Cho has filed a lawsuit against Samuel In. In, a Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety inspector who retired after 30 years with the City, had been placed on leave May 4.
Cho’s lawsuit alleges that Samuel In demanded a bribe of $15,000 from him to resolve a dispute over an unpermitted conversion of Cho’s garage to an apartment. He accuses Cho of promising to fix the problem by using In’s business partner Tae Seog Lee and his firm Max Construction. Lee and his attorney deny the allegation and call it “meritless.”
The FBI is currently investigating Building and Safety. And in April, a federal grand jury demanded personnel files for 12 current and former employees of Safety employees, including Sanuel In.
Read the original article in the Los Angeles Times.
May 23rd, 2011 at 8:49pm
Following the lead of his colleague, L.A. City Building and Safety inspector Hugo Joel Gonzalez, 49, of Eagle Rock pleaded guilty to one count of soliciting and accepting bribes. Two weeks ago, Raoul Germain, 60, of Altadena entered the same plea.
As inspectors in South Los Angeles, both men yielded power in approving or denying work performed by developers. It was the employee of one developer, tired of paying Gonzalez’ and Germain’s bribes, who became an FBI informant, turning the two well-paid inspectors into now-former L.A. City employees.
As a result of the informant’s efforts to stamp out “systemic” bribery there, the Department of Building and Safety must now respond to three subpoenas from a federal grand jury.
Read the original article in the Los Angeles Times.
May 7th, 2011 at 10:23am
One of two inspectors for the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court to one count of taking bribes.
Inspector Raoul Joseph Germain, 60, of Altadena, confessed to taking a $6,000 from an undercover agent who posed as a contractor in South Los Angeles. The bribe was for signing off on four houses for which Germain admitted he had never been on site.
Germain’s fellow defendant defendant, Hugo Joel Gonzalez, 49, of Eagle Rock, is set for a trial date in June for taking $9,000 in bribes. Both men were arrested after an informant for a developer complained to the FBI that the developer was being routine shaken down by the two inspectors.
The two men received $85,000 – $90,000 salaries plus benefits. Hopefully Germain will not only be fired, but lose his pension as well, as there should be no reward for public corruption.
Read the full article in the Daily News.
April 9th, 2011 at 1:30pm
Two of L.A.’s not-so-finest have been arrested on suspician of taking bribes as inspectors for the L.A. Department of Building and Safety in South Los Angeles.
Hugo Joel Gonzalez and Raoul Joseph Germain were arrested by the FBI after an informant, who is a work site manager for a large residential property developer, called to report “systemic” corruption at the L.A. Department of Building and Safety. The informant said he had paid bribes to Building and Safety inspectors over 40 times and that it was necessary to do so to get them to approve projects without delays.
Gonzalez and Germain were hardly underpaid, exploited civil servants. Gonzalez earned $88,000 / year and Germain $90,000 in addition to their alleged sideline in bribe-taking.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Joseph Akrotirianakis of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section is prosecuting the case.
Read the original article in the Los Angeles Times.
