Corruption runs in the family
Via Examiner
California State Senator Ron Calderon and his brother, former Assemblyman Tom Calderon, have been indicted on political corruption charges resulting from an FBI investigation, the Los Angeles Daily News/Whittier Daily News reported Friday, citing what officials call “the largest insurance fraud case to date in California.
“Sen. Ron Calderon was charged … with fraud, bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, money laundering and aiding in the filing of false tax returns,” the report explains. “His brother, Tom Calderon, a former Assemblyman, was also charged with conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering.
“The charges seemed certain to tarnish the Calderon clan, a political dynasty that’s long held power in southeast Los Angeles County,” the report predicted.
That power within the Calderon’s “political web” is further elaborated by The Los Angeles Times in a report yesterday detailing “The Calderon family’s connections,” and featuring not just Tom and Ron, but also brother Charles, a former assemblyman and state senator, and his son Ian, 27, “who became the assemblyman representing Whittier in 2012.”
In a development tangentially related to the corruption charges, a $25,000 contribution last year by “Yes We Can,” a political committee tied to the California Latino Legislative Caucus, a group Thomas Calderon was vice chair of, to Californians for Diversity, a nonprofit group that in 2011 listed him as president, was “raising eyebrows around the Capitol,” The Los Angeles Times reported in October. Not only had Calderon’s group not filed tax returns for 2012 at the time of that report, but concerns were raised over the inordinate amount of expenditures for “travel and food and beverages [and] entertainment for public officials.” That prompted Kathy Feng, executive director of the “progressive” advocacy group California Common Cause, to assess “that Californians for Diversity is a nonprofit that does not have a clear charity or social benefit purpose. I am also concerned that this nonprofit may have been created just to serve as a pass-through for money.”
HT BB