{"id":334689,"date":"2026-05-27T18:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/334689\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T18:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T18:00:08","slug":"scheme-of-self-dealing-anaheim-chamber-of-commerce-sues-ex-leader-for-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/334689\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Scheme of self-dealing’: Anaheim Chamber of Commerce sues ex-leader for fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Four years after an FBI political corruption probe<\/a> publicly surfaced in Anaheim, the city\u2019s Chamber of Commerce is suing Todd Ament, its past president and chief executive, for fraud.<\/p>\n

Filed in Orange County Superior Court on May 15, the complaint alleges that Ament secretly colluded with Jeff Flint, an influential political consultant, to defraud the chamber he helmed.<\/p>\n

\u201cTodd Ament was given a position of trust and leadership at the Chamber and then betrayed that position to serve his own financial interests,\u201d said Dara Maleki, the organization\u2019s interim president and chief executive. \u201cWith this lawsuit we will hold Ament and his co-conspirators accountable and send a clear message that public corruption will not be tolerated in Anaheim.\u201d<\/p>\n

A number of past businesses tied to Ament and Flint are also named in the suit, as is Wendy Curtis, a former chamber employee. <\/p>\n

The 30-page complaint claims Flint \u201cbribed\u201d Ament into entering a conspiracy where consulting contracts with the chamber benefited Flint\u2019s corporate umbrella of companies and circled back to Ament through \u201cillegal kickbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis action arises from a multi-year scheme of self-dealing, bribery, kickbacks and political influence peddling,\u201d the suit claims. \u201cThese two men, along with their associates and various shell entities, conspired to drain the assets of the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce while at the same time usurping its political influence for their own personal gain.\u201d<\/p>\n

How Flint allegedly bribed Ament, who led the chamber from 2009 to 2021, isn\u2019t specified in court documents.<\/p>\n

But the chamber further claims that Ament and Flint misrepresented the extent of their partnership and concealed \u201cillegal and improper\u201d actions from the organization in a scheme that totaled at least $1 million in damages.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe complaint is meritless and Ament will present a vigorous defense to the allegations in court,\u201d said Ashwin J. Ram, an attorney for Ament. <\/p>\n

Flint did not respond to a request for comment on this story.<\/p>\n

Ament\u2019s latest legal troubles arrive as a federal judge has yet to make a pivotal ruling in his criminal case stemming from the federal probe that halted a deal<\/a> to sell Angel Stadium and led to the conviction<\/a> of former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu.<\/p>\n

In 2022, Ament accepted a plea deal<\/a> admitting guilt to four felonies, including a retail cannabis-related wire fraud charge. More recently, he has tried to withdraw from the agreement<\/a> and has argued that poor legal advice from prior counsel led him to take it.<\/p>\n

A decision on whether the plea deal will stick is pending. <\/p>\n

Federal prosecutors have not accused Flint of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

The pair did share a close political and business relationship that reshaped Orange County\u2019s most populous city at one time.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, TimesOC reporting revealed that Ament and Flint discussed secretive win bonuses<\/a> and payment splits from Flint\u2019s clients including the Angels and developers of a boutique hotel near Disneyland.<\/p>\n

One payment listed on a ledger showed an even split of $300,000 from Manatt Housing Solutions after Anaheim approved a plan to have the company manage a downtown apartment complex after its conversion into rent-controlled workforce housing. Manatt was listed as a client of Octagon International Group, a company co-owned by Ament and Flint at the time.<\/p>\n

The company is also listed as a party in the chamber\u2019s lawsuit.<\/p>\n

In the complaint, Ament is additionally alleged to have engaged in corrupt self-dealing in using the chamber\u2019s reputation and influence to steer contracts to TA Consulting, his own private company, in moves the nonprofit\u2019s board members did not approve.<\/p>\n

Ament also faces accusations that he embezzled funds from the chamber for personal expenses.<\/p>\n

The suit claims he used the chamber\u2019s operating account to make a $14,000 down payment on a $120,000 Range Rover at a Newport Beach dealership. Attorneys argued that Ament also inflated his monthly car allowance and reimbursements beyond reasonable sums.<\/p>\n

The chamber is seeking more than $2 million in total compensation in addition to punitive damages as a \u201cpublic rebuke\u201d of Ament\u2019s alleged conduct.<\/p>\n

Apart from the civil suit, Maleki is also awaiting a judge\u2019s ruling on victim status for the chamber in the criminal case and $41,000 in restitution \u2014 the sum of a kickback Ament admitted receiving during a failed attempt to legalize retail cannabis in Anaheim.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four years after an FBI political corruption probe publicly surfaced in Anaheim, the city\u2019s Chamber of Commerce is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[29528,163,75747,165,164,1052,14632,12474,1804,729,6709,3130,63324,37464,42254,16274,138373,11469],"class_list":["post-334689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-ament","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-chamber","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-attorney","tag-chamber","tag-commerce","tag-company","tag-complaint","tag-deal","tag-fraud","tag-jeff-flint","tag-payment","tag-same-time","tag-scheme","tag-self-dealing","tag-suit"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334689","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334689"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334689\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334689"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334689"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334689"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}