Federal prosecutors are recommending one day in jail, or time already served, for former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Todd Ament as a reward for his cooperation with authorities in their probe of ex-Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu in the failed Angel Stadium sales deal, according to a sentencing brief obtained Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Ament\u2019s attorneys have filed a motion to withdraw his guilty plea, arguing he got bad advice from his prior attorney, Sal Ciulla. Ament\u2019s motion to withdraw his plea comes after U.S. District Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha rebuffed prosecutors\u2019 attempts to dismiss a wire fraud count against Ament.<\/p>\n
Ament pleaded guilty in July 2022 to defrauding a cannabis company in addition to loan fraud and tax cheating.<\/p>\n
Melahat Rafiei, a former Orange County Democratic Party executive director, was sentenced to six months in federal prison and fined $10,000 for her role in the public corruption case. Rafiei pleaded guilty to attempting to rip off a client for her political consultancy firm and a bribery scheme involving two Irvine City Council members.<\/p>\n
Rafiei wore a wire to help authorities build a case against Ament, who later wore a wire himself when meeting with Sidhu, leading to his conviction and a two-month prison sentence in the failed Angel Stadium sales deal.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Probation Office has recommended 30 to 37 months in federal prison and that Ament should face $10,000 to $1 million in fines.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors had argued Ament should face 18 to 24 months behind bars, but given his cooperation in the Sidhu investigation, he should instead face zero to six months in prison, according to a sentencing brief filed Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cBased on defendant\u2019s cooperation, the government respectfully recommends that the court impose a sentence of one day (time served),\u201d according to the brief from Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Rabbani.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors also recommended restitution of $225,000 and a fine of $9,500.<\/p>\n
Ament\u2019s attorneys argue that their client got bad legal advice when he pleaded guilty in the case. They also argue there is not enough evidence in the wire fraud count to sustain a conviction.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Ament made clear to his prior counsel that he could not admit to the facts alleged in the plea agreement,\u201d his attorneys Daniel Silva and Ashwin Ram argued in court papers filed Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe reason: the facts were untrue,\u201d the defense attorneys added. \u201cDespite his protests of his innocence and an inherently flawed factual basis, prior counsel directed Mr. Ament to plead guilty, to proffer his guilty pleas to the court, and to accept the factual basis at his plea hearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ament waited to contest the guilty plea until he was finished cooperating with investigators through last fall \u201con multiple criminal investigations,\u201d his attorneys said. Also, his current attorneys \u201cprivately raised arguments with (prosecutors) that the information alleged facts that did not amount to criminal conduct,\u201d according to the motion.<\/p>\n
The defense attorneys argued that Ament was \u201ctargeted due to his political connections\u201d as a Republican strategist.<\/p>\n
The attorneys argued that Ament\u2019s prior attorney \u201chad exceedingly limited experience defending subjects and targets of federal white-collar investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ament was \u201cfearful and overwhelmed\u201d when he agreed to cooperate with authorities following a \u201ccivil forfeiture case filed\u201d against his home, his attorneys said. Ament claimed he was told by a prosecutor that if he cooperated the charges against him would \u201cgo away,\u201d his attorneys said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith these promises, FBI special agents immediately asked Mr. Ament about politically conservative, pro-business (political action committees) in Orange County,\u201d his attorneys said. \u201cMr. Ament warned that he had never engaged in bribery or other corrupt influence activities.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ament\u2019s work helped lead to Sidhu receiving a two-month sentence in federal prison for registering a helicopter he bought out of state to avoid taxes and for obstructing justice in the stadium deal negotiations.<\/p>\n
The defense attorneys noted how prosecutors with the state Attorney Genera\u2019s Office made a search warrant against Sidhu public alongside the complaint against Ament to kill the stadium deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr. Ament later learned that Melahat Rafiei was the original target\u201d of federal prosecutors, Ament\u2019s attorneys said.<\/p>\n
Rafiei was flipped to target Ament, his attorneys said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs. Rafiei redirected the (prosecutors\u2019) attention to her political rival \u2014 Mr. Ament \u2014 even though she was engaged in multiple instances of theft, bribery and fraud,\u201d Ament\u2019s attorneys said.<\/p>\n
Rafiei admitted to bribing Irvine officials, planning to steal from the cannabis company and dangling bribes to Anaheim City Council members, but \u201cnone of this had anything to do with Mr. Ament, the chamber of commerce, or Mayor Sidhu,\u201d his attorneys said.<\/p>\n
Ament also denied defrauding the Chamber of Commerce.<\/p>\n
Still to be determined is a motion to include the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce as a victim in the case. The dismissal of the wire fraud count could have scuttled that case. Attorney Dean Steward, who represents the chamber, has argued in court papers that it deserves $264,330 in restitution.<\/p>\n
The Chamber of Commerce filed a brief on Wednesday saying prosecutors have failed to adhere to rules of court with regards to what it says is its status as a victim in the case. Steward argued in the brief that dismissing the wire fraud count against Ament would have \u201ceffectively cut off restitution for the chamber and a second victim of Ament\u2019s fraud.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steward added that despite the judge\u2019s \u201cwarning to the prosecution during the last hearing on Aug. 22, 2025, that under federal statutes, victims have a number of rights, to date, the U.S. Attorney\u2019s Office has not contacted counsel for victim chamber in any way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Prosecutors have never responded to the chamber\u2019s claim in November of 2022 that it was a victim, Steward said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prosecution has apparently unilaterally decided that the chamber is not a victim, and sought no information from counsel, in contravention of the Mandatory Victims Restitution Act,\u201d Steward said.<\/p>\n
In Wednesday\u2019s brief, the chamber asked for $41,000 in restitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal prosecutors are recommending one day in jail, or time already served, for former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,14632,12032,15726,4164,728,21295,27238],"class_list":["post-40335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-chamber","tag-chief","tag-former","tag-guilty","tag-plea","tag-seeks","tag-withdraw"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40335","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=40335"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40335\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}