{"id":44599,"date":"2025-11-08T22:26:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T22:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/44599\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T22:26:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T22:26:06","slug":"federal-prosecutors-recommend-time-served-for-ex-anaheim-chamber-ceo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/44599\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal prosecutors recommend time served for ex-Anaheim Chamber CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The U.S. attorney\u2019s office is urging a federal judge to sentence former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce chief executive Todd Ament to one day in jail, or time served, based on his cooperation with the FBI in a political corruption probe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In connection with the investigation, Ament pleaded guilty<\/a> to four felonies, including wire fraud related to a retail cannabis scheme in Anaheim, shortly after it publicly surfaced in 2022.<\/p>\n

His cooperation with authorities led to former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu\u2019s conviction<\/a>, which included two counts of lying to the FBI about the now-collapsed Angel Stadium deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout Ament\u2019s actions, the government likely could not have charged Sidhu,\u201d a Nov. 4 sentencing memo reads.<\/p>\n

The government is seeking $225,000 in restitution for the cannabis company at the center of the scheme, on top of a $9,500 fine.<\/p>\n

While federal prosecutors did not seek to withdraw the cannabis-related wire fraud charge from Ament\u2019s plea deal, as they have unsuccessfully tried<\/a> before, they are also not objecting to a recent move by his attorneys to try to undo the entire agreement, which includes other felonies for wire fraud, lying to a mortgage lender and filing a false tax return.<\/p>\n

Ahead of his scheduled Nov. 14 sentencing date, Ament is arguing in court documents that he received poor legal advice from Sal Ciulla, his previous attorney, in agreeing to plead guilty to all four charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cAment made clear to his prior counsel that he could not admit to the facts alleged in the plea agreement,\u201d the motion reads. \u201cThe reason: the facts were untrue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Former chamber board member Jeff Farano declared he was present during the discussion and backed Ament\u2019s account.<\/p>\n

In addition to reasserting that tighter wire fraud definitions no longer support the cannabis-related charge against him, Ament now also claims he took steps to amend his tax returns and repaid a bank mortgage loan as well as funds received from a federal pandemic small business loan before being contacted by authorities. <\/p>\n

Ament\u2019s current legal team further alleges Ciulla did not make the \u201cexculpatory\u201d evidence available and lacked professional experience in federal white-collar crime cases.<\/p>\n

Ciulla did not comment on the claims.<\/p>\n

The eleventh-hour move comes on the heels of an October decision by U.S. District Court Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha, who declined to drop the cannabis-related charge against Ament after federal prosecutors failed to file supporting legal arguments backing their request.<\/p>\n

In addition to asserting his innocence, Ament criticized key moments of the FBI investigation, with which he has otherwise cooperated regarding several criminal leads through last fall.<\/p>\n

\u201cFearful and overwhelmed,\u201d Ament agreed to work with authorities on the spot in late 2021, after he learned of a civil forfeiture case against his home that could be enforced, according to court documents. He claimed a prosecutor told him \u201ccooperation can make these charges go away\u201d but felt that to be an empty promise in pleading guilty to multiple crimes. <\/p>\n

While stopping short of alleging prosecutorial misconduct, attorneys argue Ament\u2019s political connections as a Republican consultant and chamber leader made him a target.<\/p>\n

Ament is described as the \u201crival\u201d of Melahat Rafiei, a former cannabis consultant and Democratic Party official who worked through the chamber for her cannabis company client and allegedly redirected the FBI investigation toward him.<\/p>\n

The $225,000 payment from her client to the chamber was used to establish a task force, which Ament insists legitimately worked on lobbying and polling efforts to legalize retail cannabis in Anaheim. The FBI investigation showed Rafiei and her client would not have paid the amount if they had known about Ament\u2019s plan to pocket a portion of the funds. <\/p>\n

Rafiei secretly planned to retain a significant portion of the sum from her client, according to her plea agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Aenlle-Rocha bypassed federal prosecutors\u2019 probation recommendation<\/a> in the Rafiei case, instead sentencing her to six months<\/a> in prison for attempted wire fraud. She is currently serving time at a medium-security penitentiary in Victorville.<\/p>\n

Ament\u2019s attorneys are hoping to stave off this month\u2019s sentencing for their client by scheduling a court date next month regarding his plea deal.<\/p>\n

With the cannabis-related wire fraud charge still intact, an attorney for the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce is also making a concerted push for the court to recognize the nonprofit as a victim of Ament\u2019s criminal conduct.<\/p>\n

Attorney Dean Steward claimed in court documents the U.S. attorney\u2019s office has not reached out to his client in any way since November 2022, when the chamber argued in a letter it deserved victim status in the case.<\/p>\n

The chamber seeks $41,000 in restitution \u2014 the exact sum Ament pocketed as a kickback in the scheme to defraud the retail cannabis company, according to his plea agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The U.S. attorney\u2019s office is urging a federal judge to sentence former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce chief executive…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[29528,163,165,164,1052,6577,14626,15055,8533,26484,1055,14627,29532,29529,29531,29530,315,16599],"class_list":["post-44599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-ament","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-attorney","tag-authority","tag-cannabis-related-wire-fraud-charge","tag-chamber-leader","tag-client","tag-court-document","tag-fbi","tag-federal-prosecutor","tag-former-anaheim-chamber","tag-melahat-rafiei","tag-retail-cannabis-scheme","tag-sal-ciulla","tag-time","tag-wire-fraud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44599","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=44599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44599\/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=44599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}