Los Angeles Pension Board Appointees Investigated By the SEC
The latimes.com website reported in an article on May 8, 2009 that two members of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pension boards will retire due to a white collar crime investigation by the Securities Exchange Commission. Sean Harrigan, president of the Los Angeles Fire and Police Pensions board and Elliott Broidy, a colleague, both appointees of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, have resigned. The SEC sent them a letter requesting that they identify the income they had collected from companies conducting business with their agency. They have been asked to reveal their communications with companies being investigated in New York.
According to Harrigan, he left since the inquiry had made his agency’s board meetings increasingly disorderly and generated “a frenzy of media activity” that placed him “in eye of the storm.”
Harrigan said, “While I have done nothing wrong, I recognize that this entire matter has become a huge distraction for all parties involved in the business of operating an $11-billion public pension system.”
Matt Szabo, Villaraigosa spokesman, stated that the mayor, Harrigan, and Broidy had agreed that resigning was “the best course of action.”
Just one week earlier, Kelly Candaele, another pension appointee, was asked by Mayor Villaraigosa to resign the Los Angeles City Employees’ Retirement System. Reportedly he took part in a campaign fundraiser for the city attorney campaign of Jack Weiss, a violation of city laws.
Szabo said, “The mayor holds all of his commissioners to extraordinarily high standards, which includes avoiding even the appearance of impropriety.”
White collar crimes in Los Angeles are usually crimes of theft and deception committed by salaried professional people as opposed to other crimes that use force. White collar crimes can be prosecuted at the state level or federal level, or both. Penalties for being convicted of white collar crime typically consist of fines, restitution and, in some cases, prison.
The Los Angeles white collar crime defense attorneys at the Law Offices of Lawrence Wolf have a long history of successfully handling the defense of clients charged with all types of white collar crimes in California. If you are facing a white collar crime, please contact the Law Offices of Lawrence Wolf at 1-866-390-7373 for a free consultation.
