Free Republic

The City Ethics Commission has violated the law for a decade by failing to notify city agencies of sanctions against dozens of people who money-laundered tens of thousands of dollars to political candidates, the Daily News has learned. The notification failure means leaders of city agencies - who award millions of dollars in contracts - may have been unaware that some bidders who laundered campaign funds should be ineligible for city business under the four-year-ban rule. As investigations of possible City Hall corruption continue, the breach in ethics enforcement rules raises new questions about whether effective measures are in place....

Capping a five-week trial that grew out of a sweeping investigation into City Hall corruption, a federal jury on Tuesday found two former Fleishman-Hillard executives guilty of padding bills to the DWP by more than $300,000. Doug Dowie, a power broker who headed the Los Angeles office of the prestigious public relations firm, and John Stodder, his right-hand man, showed little emotion as the verdicts were read by U.S. District Judge Gary Allen Feess. The jury deliberated 51/2 days before finding Dowie, 58, and Stodder, 50, guilty of conspiracy and wire fraud charges. Dowie faces up to 240 years in...

According to James Hahn's spokesman, the mayor was "outraged" -- outraged, mind you -- that the public relations firm he was channeling millions of dollars to stands accused of stealing from the taxpayers. The federal grand jury indictment last week of recently discharged Fleishman-Hillard executive John Stodder on 11 counts of defrauding the Department of Water and Power, the Port of Los Angeles and two private clients seems to have surprised no one but Hahn. Federal and district attorney investigators have been tearing apart the Hahn administration's "pay-to-play" contracting practices for more than a year, while City Controller Laura Chick's...

In the first charges growing out of City Hall corruption investigations, a former top executive with the Fleishman-Hillard public relations firm was indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on 11 felony counts of fraud. The indictment of John Stodder, 49, a senior vice president who left the firm last week, centers on charges that he participated in a scheme over a two-year period to defraud the Department of Water and Power out of $250,000. He also is accused of overbilling the Port of Los Angeles, architect Frank Gehry's firm and the World Wide Church of God. Stodder, who faces...

A Los Angeles federal grand jury today indicted a former high-ranking executive of the Fleishman-Hillard public relations firm for his part in a scheme that defrauded the Dept. of Water and Power of at least $250,000 and cheated private clients by lesser amounts. The indictment alleges that John Stodder, Jr., a one-time partner and senior vice president who ran the firm's local public affairs practice, participated with "others known and unknown" to routinely submit inflated billings to the DWP, the Port of Los Angeles, the World Wide Church of God and the firm of world-renown architect Frank Gehry. Law enforcement...