Related emails, financial records and spreadsheets \u2014 including those that informed an FBI investigation into task force money transfers as a key part of a federal corruption probe<\/a> \u2014 were obtained by TimesOC ahead of the court date.<\/p>\n The documents detail the fallout from the failure to legalize retail cannabis as well as which companies were paid and how much they received along the way. <\/p>\n With legal retail cannabis seemingly all but dead in Anaheim, Chris Glew, an attorney and listed agent for Mr. Nice Guy cannabis dispensaries, fired off an email on May 28, 2020, to Ament and Jeff Flint, a lobbyist who wasn\u2019t registered with the city but steered most of the task force funds to his affiliated companies, according to records reviewed by TimesOC.<\/p>\n In the email, Glew claimed Flint informed him a week before that the effort would fail to gain enough council votes and the only options going forward entailed a ballot measure or revisiting the issue with council a year from that time.<\/p>\n \u201cThe clients, as originally presented on date of hire, view a ballot initiative as a total loss,\u201d Glew wrote in his email. \u201cThe initiative process is ripe with numerous pitfalls and makes all efforts to date meaningless from the clients\u2019 perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n Going back to the City Council in a year would \u201conly serve to line the pockets of consultants,\u201d he argued.<\/p>\n Though not named in court documents, Glew was an associate of Melahat Rafiei, a former Democratic Party operative<\/a> who\u2019d taken on From the Earth as a client, records show. <\/p>\n According to the task force\u2019s ledgers, Mr. Nice Guy Enterprises contributed $85,000 to the effort, which began in July 2019. Chamber financial records show a company affiliated with From the Earth\u2019s attorney, Dan Zaharoni, wired $225,000 spread out over three separate payments beginning that same month. <\/p>\n Rafiei, a cooperating witness with the FBI, explained to an agent her client\u2019s payments were for access to the task force, which was \u201can illusion and an entity that was created just for show.\u201d Funds would be paid for research, polling and focus groups, but Anaheim\u2019s retail cannabis ordinance was expected to be \u201crubber stamped\u201d by a council majority under Ament and Flint\u2019s influence.<\/p>\n Chamber executive Todd Ament, right, cooperated with the FBI in the case against ex-Mayor Sidhu, left. <\/p>\n (Gabriel San Roman\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n In Ament\u2019s attempt to withdraw his plea agreement, he has argued that, contrary to Rafiei\u2019s statments, the task force put in real work. From the Earth \u201creceived the services it paid for,\u201d his September court filing claimed. <\/p>\n According to the FBI, Flint transferred $41,000, a portion of From the Earth\u2019s payment from his FSB consulting firm, to Ament\u2019s private accounts, which the former chamber executive then allegedly used on personal expenses.<\/p>\n Ament\u2019s attorneys claim that he merely failed to inform Rafiei about the payment which, they argue, is not enough to sustain a wire fraud charge under new, tightened legal definitions.<\/p>\n In an interview, Daniel Ahn, a former senior federal prosecutor on the case, weighed in on Ament\u2019s chances in court next month.<\/p>\n \u201cThe key question is whether, based on the factual basis of the plea agreement, it can be said that Ament deceived From the Earth and Mr. Nice Guy into transferring money, regardless of whether they got what they paid for,\u201dAhn said. \u201cIf the answer is yes, then unwinding the plea on this basis will be a tough row to hoe.\u201d <\/p>\n A spokesperson for Ament\u2019s legal team declined to comment for this story.<\/p>\n Suspicions heightened<\/p>\n Glew\u2019s May 28, 2020 email to Ament and Flint went a week without any response. On June 5, 2020, he sent a follow-up email in which he claimed Ament had given him no substantive update on retail cannabis in months, save to ask for more money. Glew also learned that Pete Mitchell, another consultant, was part of the cannabis team. He referenced phone calls with him and claimed Mitchell said he\u2019d been involved since day one.<\/p>\n \u201cPete also made it clear that he has obtained other clients from very lucrative terms to work on a ballot initiative,\u201d Glew wrote. \u201cThis is very alarming as he is part of the Todd Ament and Jeff Flint team we hired to avoid the ballot initiative from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitchell responded after the email was forwarded to him.<\/p>\n \u201cI was not a part of the team, as you put it, since day one and am my own entity,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI have not received any compensation from clients. I have one client only, at this point, in cannabis and I am not receiving funds and I am doing it on a win bonus only scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitchell claimed he had no \u201cbusiness ventures\u201d with Ament and Flint. His involvement, he said, came \u201cmuch later,\u201d at the request of council members to curry favor for legal retail cannabis from law enforcement. Mitchell had counted the Anaheim Police Assn. as a client.<\/p>\n The explanation appeared to disarm Glew, at least on the surface. <\/p>\n \u201cI will assume, based on this email, that you are hereby not representing the clients we brought to Jeff and Todd so Melahat and I will no longer be discussing the payments with you as previously requested by you,\u201d he wrote. \u201cI cannot ask you to work in any specific direction, but I look forward to your support in developing the best policies for Anaheim.\u201d<\/p>\n Corruption scandals have hung over Anaheim City Hall since an FBI probe surfaced almost four years ago.<\/p>\n (Gabriel San Rom\u00e1n)<\/p>\n A task force ledger from July 2020 noted that FSB shared its payment not only with Ament but also with Mitchell\u2019s firm. Mitchell emailed Flint on May 20, 2020, asking if he needed wire transfer information, but it is unclear if the correspondence was related to a task force payment.<\/p>\n Another ledger showed Mitchell\u2019s consulting company under an accounts payable column dating back to July 2019. Mitchell confirmed to TimesOC he was paid around $20,000, describing his role as a subcontractor. <\/p>\n \u201cI became a person who wanted to shepherd good policy on this, but it became so disjointed,\u201d Mitchell added. \u201cI eventually wanted no part of an ordinance or this process, so I was glad it was killed.\u201d <\/p>\n He said he was \u201cdisgusted\u201d by the revelations in the FBI probe. <\/p>\n Flint did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n Ahead of the June 9, 2020, council meeting, according to email records, Flint prepared two scripts for Harry Sidhu, who served as mayor at the time, to read in the event the ordinance passed or failed.<\/p>\n Political consultant Matt Cunningham wrote a letter in Ament\u2019s name to council members before the vote. It claimed that the chamber had taken \u201cno position\u201d on legal retail cannabis.<\/p>\n \u201cWe became aware that outside cannabis interests intended to qualify a ballot initiative to repeal Anaheim\u2019s prohibition on cannabis businesses,\u201d the letter read. <\/p>\n \u201cRather than have outside actors to potentially decide the terms of cannabis legalization in Anaheim, the chamber launched a cannabis policy task force to study the potential impacts and effects on Anaheim if the City Council were to consider lifting the ban.\u201d<\/p>\n After three hours of debate, a council majority rejected the ordinance. Sidhu later changed his vote to join the majority.<\/p>\n In the aftermath, Flint sent Rafiei a ledger on how the task force money was spent. Rafiei shared it with the FBI and surreptitiously recorded a meeting with Flint and Glew over expenses in September 2020.<\/p>\n According to the ledger, the task force appeared to spend nearly $100,000 on polling and focus groups through a Flint-affiliated company. C3 Public Strategies, another Flint-affiliated company, also expensed $70,700 for a canvassing program. Task force funds also purchased voter data.<\/p>\n Rafiei became upset when she learned Dirk Voss was also hired as a consultant and Chuck Farano provided legal services for the task force.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s our direct competition,\u201d she said of Farano, whose name was redacted in FBI transcripts. \u201c[He] was going out there telling his clients all the things we were working on in here.\u201d<\/p>\n The FBI flagged the task force ledger for inconsistencies. FSB payments totaled $60,000 when chamber records show $80,000 in payments to the Flint company. <\/p>\n Ordinance abandoned<\/p>\n Legal retail cannabis never came back before council. Ballot measures never qualified, including one pulled from the city clerk\u2019s office on May 16, 2022, the same day an FBI affidavit was filed in court detailing allegations of corruption related to an attempted sale of Angel Stadium.<\/p>\n Flint has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing. He now heads HexaCom Group<\/a>, a new public affairs company. Rafiei is currently at a San Pedro halfway house after a judge sentenced her to six months on cannabis-related attempted wire fraud charge in Anaheim. <\/p>\n The chamber is seeking victim status in the Ament case and $41,000 in restitution. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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