"Fools Flirt With Fraud" by Daniel Guss
Krekorian-led City Council, Controller Mejia Willfully Ignore Curren's Crazy Cash Claims
@TheGussReport - If LA City Councilmember Curren Price is convicted on all of the corruption counts for which he is currently charged (assuming that no additional charges are filed), his homestead in the hoosegow could tally as much as nine years.
Despite well-established evidence upon which those charges are based, the ding dong delegates to the LA City Council, its president Paul Krekorian and City Controller Kenneth Mejia publicly opt for blissful ignorance about their colleague’s crazy cash claims, except that their oath of office doesn’t allow them to look the other way on potential corruption.
That makes them an accessory after the fact.
Price’s Endless Asset and Income Shell Game
On Price’s 2012 Form 700, his sworn financial disclosure form, he listed zero assets and income sources for Delbra.
Then, on his 2013 Form 700, he listed scores of her assets and dozens of sources of her income.
On both, Price, who has a law degree, signed his name where it says, “I have used all due diligence in preparing this statement. I have reviewed this statement and to the best of my knowledge the information contained herein and in any attached schedules is true and complete. I acknowledge this is a public document. I certify under penalty of perjury under the laws of the State of California that the foregoing is true and correct.”
So how did Delbra go from having no business interests in 2012 to scores of them in 2013, including her 100% ownership in Del Richardson and Associates, her 100% ownership in Just Work, Inc., (both registered with the California Secretary of State since 1998) and real property owned by a corporation with her initials as its name, DRA, Inc?
How did Price go from claiming that Delbra had no sources of income of at least $10,000 on his 2012 Form 700 to at least twenty of them, including the City of LA HCID, City of LA Department of Public Works and the LADWP, listed on his 2013 Form 700?
How confident are Mejia, Krekorian and every other LA City Councilmember that Price recused himself from every vote where he had a conflict of interest for the past decade? To date, Price has only been charged for a few conflict of interest crimes.
Since none of these officials appear to have any intellectual curiosity about these matters, I am openly and actively lobbying other law enforcement agencies to do their job for them.
Everything Everywhere All At Once
One gift that keeps on giving in the Curren Price criminal saga is a terrific hillside house that Delbra owns at 4519 Don Arturo Place.
Oh that Curren!
This is the residence where he claimed under penalty of perjury in his unsuccessful 2012 divorce proceedings that his first wife, Lynn Suzette Price, resided…
At the very same time, he claimed on his 2013 Form 700, that Delbra had tenants, Dr. and Mr. Earl Jones, living there in 2012…
It is also where Curren and Delbra had both been registered to vote and it is the address that Delbra used as her residence address in ongoing correspondence about a tax lien with the IRS, years after they claimed that they had moved to Council District 9, which he has represented for the past decade.
All at the same time.
This is mutually exclusive shit, friends. Price claimed under oath that his first wife lived where he simultaneously claimed that his second wife had other tenants!
On these claims alone, Price should be immediately suspended pending an investigation. But the truth appears to be so much worse than that.
Housing Genius Or Criminal Sociopath?
In a city where the extreme cost of rental housing is mentioned on countless City Council agenda items, Price has claimed that the house which Delbra owns on Don Arturo Place brought in no more than $10,000 in rental income in 2012 (according to his 2013 Form 700.) That’s no more than $833 per month in rent, if it was rented for the full 12 months, i.e. $10,000 divided by 12 months = $833. That’s a heck of a sweet deal even by 2013 standards.
In 2014, Price continued to claim that Don Arturo brought in no more than $833 in rent per month from the same tenants.
In fact, as recently as 2022, Price continued claiming that Delbra’s Don Arturo rent haul was no more than $833 per month, from the same tenants. According to public records, she is the sole owner of the home.
According to Zillow and other real estate websites, the Don Arturo house is worth as much as $1.64mm.
And that the rent should be around $6,495.
And this doesn’t alarm city officials???
Price’s Sudden Shift
Last October, I presciently wrote in a column called “The In(dictment) Crowd” that Price would soon be criminally charged.
It was only then that Price started claiming a higher rent for the Don Arturo house on his subsequent 2023 Form 700:
Yet Krekorian and pals continue to allow Price to vote on other City Council agenda items???
My friends, there is something rotten in the state of Denmark, and by turning a blind eye to it, every city official who is sworn to represent us with integrity may now be a party to it.
They are required to investigate.
Similarly, the LA Times has lacked stories on this subject. But as I will soon report, there are even darker things to which the Times has turned a blind eye.
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(Daniel Guss, MBA, is a multi-award-winning journalist. In June ‘23, he won the LA Press Club’s “Online Journalist of the Year” and “Best Activism Journalism” awards. He has been City Editor for the Mayor Sam network, and a featured contributor for CityWatchLA, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, KCRW 89.9 FM, KRLA 870 AM, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News and the Los Angeles Times in its sports, opinion, entertainment and Sunday Magazine sections among other publishers.)