U.S. District Court Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha has denied a push by federal prosecutors to drop a cannabis-related wire fraud charge against a former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce president.
The decision comes ahead of a scheduled Nov. 14 sentencing hearing for Todd Ament, a longtime leader of the chamber who resigned months before facing charges in connection with an FBI investigation into a self-described “cabal” that ran Anaheim.
In a five-page order issued Monday, Aenlle-Rocha described prosecutors’ move to dismiss the charge as “procedurally deficient,” as the U.S. Atty.’s Office did not file any supporting legal arguments that the judge said were required by law.
As part of a plea deal, Ament had already admitted guilt to four felonies in July 2022, including a wire fraud charge that claimed he defrauded a cannabis company that allegedly sought an inside track on chamber-led efforts to legalize retail cannabis in Anaheim.
He cooperated with the FBI investigation and surreptitiously recorded a conversation in which former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu told him he expected $1 million in campaign support from Los Angeles Angels executives in exchange for his work negotiating the now-defunct $320-million stadium deal.
The Angels have not been accused of wrongdoing in the probe.
Prosecutors asked Aenlle-Rocha to drop the cannabis-related charge in a Sept. 11 filing “in the interests of justice” without Ament having to withdraw his guilty plea.
Ament’s attorneys followed with a Sept. 19 filing in support of the charge’s dismissal.
They argued in court documents that definitions of wire fraud have tightened since the plea deal and no longer apply to Ament’s conduct in the case, which amounted to a mere omission that he would pocket a portion of a cannabis company’s $225,000 payment.
Aenlle-Rocha dismissed the argument, calling it “pure speculation” as to the government’s reasons for seeking the charge’s dismissal.
Ament’s attorneys declined to comment on the decision.
Former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce President/CEO Todd Ament speaks at a city event in 2018.
(Gabriel San Roman)
Aenlle-Rocha’s order further determined the arguments did not align with what Asst. U.S. Atty. Melissa Rabbani said about the wire fraud charge during an Aug. 22 hearing.
“I don’t want to say that it’s not sustainable, or not a case that we could win,” Rabbani argued, “but … looking at these facts now, it’s perhaps not a claim that we would bring right now, given the state of the law.”
With the government failing to “expressly” state that the charge was unsustainable or unwinnable, either at the hearing or in a memo, Aenlle-Rocha denied the motion.
The judge also vacated a scheduled Oct. 22 hearing, since Ament did not seek to withdraw his guilty plea, as was previously expected before the government’s move to dismiss the charge without the filing.
This week’s decision comes two months after another ruling by Aenlle-Rocha in a case connected to the corruption probe, in which Melahat Rafiei, a former Democratic Party official and cannabis consultant, was sentenced to six months in prison for attempted wire fraud over federal prosecutors’ recommendation that she receive probation.
Had Aenlle-Rocha agreed to dismiss the wire fraud charge against Ament, it could have potentially reduced the ex-CEO’s sentence.
Instead, the plea deal, which includes another count of wire fraud, lying to a mortgage lender and filing a false tax return, remains intact.
Dean Steward, an attorney representing the chamber, welcomed Monday’s decision, as he is seeking victim status for the organization that Ament previously led. The ruling does not confer such status to the chamber, but the wire fraud charge is central to Steward’s argument that it deserves restitution in Ament’s criminal case.
“The attempt to dismiss [the count] is nothing but an added reward for a cooperator,” he said. “This Department of Justice does not care about victims.”