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Julie Lee, the Sunset District community organizer and political fundraiser who illegally funneled state grant money into a campaign account of former California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, was sentenced Friday to five years of probation for state crimes that included grand theft, embezzlement and forgery. Lee pleaded guilty to the state charges in July, just days after being convicted of similar federal crimes. Last month, U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton sentenced Lee to a year and a day behind bars and denied a request from Lee's attorneys that she be sentenced to probation and house arrest. On Friday, San...

The San Francisco community organizer who illegally funneled state grant money into a campaign account of former California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley was sentenced this morning to a year and a day behind bars. In July, a federal court found Julie Lee guilty of mail fraud and witness tampering charges. Shelley resigned months after The Chronicle broke news of the money-funneling scheme that involved a $500,000 grant for a Sunset District community center that was never built. Shelley was never charged with any crimes and denied knowing about Lee's intentions. Lee made an emotional plea for leniency in court,...

San Francisco community organizer Julie Lee, whose questionable fundraising helped push former California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley out of politics, has pled guilty to state criminal charges just days after a jury found her guilty on federal charges. Lee, 62, pleaded guilty to all nine counts brought against her in state court, including grand theft, embezzlement and forgery. The charges relate to an alleged scheme to funnel part of a $500,000 state grant intended for a community center into Shelley's 2002 election campaign. The community center was never built.In a statement released today, The San Francisco District Attorney's office...

The defense's case in the Sacramento trial of San Francisco political power broker Julie Lee was short and sensational Wednesday. The only witness called was Willie Brown, an icon of California politics, Assembly speaker longer than any other person and two-term mayor of San Francisco. Brown, nattily dressed as always in a gray suit and dark shirt and tie, had high praise for Lee as a grass-roots activist who shared his goal while mayor to build a community center for families and youths in the heavily Chinese American Sunset district on the city's west side. "It was something that everybody...

A San Francisco engineer testified Tuesday in Sacramento federal court that political fundraiser Julie Lee asked him to adopt fraudulent documents to satisfy auditors looking into Lee's use of state grant money. James Li described for a jury how Lee, in the summer of 2004, brought him "a bundle of documents in an envelope and asked me to review them and be prepared to answer questions from state controller auditors." Among the documents, Li told the jury, was a backdated invoice that purported to be from his firm seeking payment of $621,300 from Lee's nonprofit San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center...

The criminal case that brought former California Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's political career to an abrupt halt more than three years ago is scheduled for trial today, as federal prosecutors attempt to prove mail fraud and witness tampering charges against his onetime fundraiser Julie Lee. While the case dashed the lofty aspirations of Shelley - once considered a potential senator, mayor or governor - and took a long time to get to trial, the allegations against Lee are straightforward. Prosecutors have charged her with four counts of mail fraud and three counts of witness tampering for fraudulently obtaining state...

SAN FRANCISCO - Julie Lee, the San Francisco real estate agent charged with funneling state grant money to former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's campaign, solicited false grant documents, arranged for laundered contributions and tried to enlist others in hiding the scheme, according to grand jury transcripts released Monday. Lee has pleaded not guilty to eight felony counts, including grand theft, embezzlement and forgery, returned by a state grand jury. San Francisco District Attorney Kamala Harris and Attorney General Bill Lockyer allege Lee converted a state grant for a community center and proceeds from two real estate transactions into cash...

SAN FRANCISCO - A state grand jury is investigating the activities of a fundraiser for former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley and is expected to hand down an indictment within a week, it was disclosed in court Thursday. During a procedural hearing on a criminal complaint filed in April against Julie Lee by the San Francisco District Attorney's and the state attorney general's offices, Steven Gruel, Lee's defense lawyer, said a grand jury had been convened. Assistant District Attorney Davina Pujari indirectly confirmed that, telling Superior Court Judge Perker Meeks Jr. that whatever action the grand jury takes could be...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The federal agency that oversees election preparations has decided to release nearly $170 million to California that was potentially in jeopardy because of questions over how federal money was spent under former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley. The U.S. Election Assistance Commission sent a letter Wednesday to California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson, Shelley's replacement, to announce the release of the $169.7 million, commission spokeswoman Jeannie Layson said Thursday. The move followed a visit McPherson paid to the commission last month to lobby for the money - Californias 2004 share of some $3 billion being sent to...

The other shoe dropped for Julie Lee on Thursday when the erstwhile fundraiser for former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley was charged by a federal grand jury in Sacramento with mail fraud and attempted witness tampering. A seven-count indictment alleges that the 58-year-old Lee, a San Francisco businesswoman, one-time city commissioner and political power broker in the Asian community, siphoned $125,000 out of a state grant in 2001 and 2002, then used the money for campaign contributions through intermediaries to Shelley, who was a candidate for secretary of state. The indictment also alleges Lee created false and misleading paperwork and...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The U.S. attorney's office on Thursday indicted Julie Lee, a top political fundraiser for former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley, for diverting $125,000 from a taxpayer-funded grant to Shelley's campaign coffers. An FBI investigation led a federal grand jury to issue the seven-count indictment that charges Lee with four counts of mail fraud and three counts of attempted witness tampering, U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott said. Lee's attorney, Steven Gruel, could not immediately be reached for comment, but last month she pleaded not guilty to related criminal charges in San Francisco. The federal indictment alleges that Lee...

Sources say Shelley fund-raiser accused of diverting grant funds. State prosecutors charged a top volunteer fund-raiser for former Secretary of State Kevin Shelley with grand theft and other felonies on Thursday, accusing her of diverting $125,000 from a taxpayer-funded grant to Shelley's 2002 campaign fund, sources with knowledge of the case told The Chronicle. The complaint, filed under seal in San Francisco Superior Court, claims that Julie Lee, a San Francisco businesswoman, city commissioner and political power broker in the Asian community, forged documents to obtain state funds, used the money for illegal purposes and later falsified records to cover...

Through her aggressive fund raising for San Francisco politicians, Julie Lee transformed herself from grassroots activist to City Hall insider and political power broker. But that same largesse and the power it brought her have written the most bitter chapter of Lee's career, leading to the resignation from office of one of her biggest benefactors, Kevin Shelley, as California secretary of state -- and now felony charges said to have been filed against her by the state attorney general Thursday. Lee coveted insider access, say those who worked closely with her, and she quickly learned that campaign contributions opened the...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - State Attorney General Bill Lockyer filed suit Friday to shut down a nonprofit group accused of illegally funneling taxpayer money into Secretary of State Kevin Shelley's campaign coffers. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco County Superior Court, seeks to dissolve the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center. It claims the group improperly diverted at least $168,750 in charitable funds to make $125,000 in donations to Shelley's campaign in 2001 and 2002. When Shelley was majority leader of the state Assembly in 2000, he helped arrange a $500,000 state grant for the center, which was founded in 1999...

She was a grassroots activist in San Francisco's Chinese American community who transformed herself into a City Hall insider through her prowess as a political fund-raiser. An immigrant who became a multimillionaire from real estate deals on the city's west side, she contributed $274,712 to the campaigns of Mayor Willie Brown, Secretary of State Kevin Shelley and many other politicians while raising tens of thousands more to benefit the causes and candidates she favored. In response to her aggressive fund raising, critics say, the politicians provided many benefits to Julie Lee, 57, a Sunset District real estate agent and president...

Secretary of State Kevin Shelley received $30,000 in donations to his 2002 campaign from a 62-year-old foster-care provider who said Friday that the money was tied to a home purchase from Julie Lee, the president of a nonprofit who is under fire for a series of questionable political contributions. State records show Eliana Maldonado wrote checks for $10,000 and $20,000 to Shelley on Sept. 27, 2002. Four days later, Maldonado took ownership of a three-bedroom, three-bath house from Lee and her husband, Shing Kit. The San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday that Patrick K. Hsu, a 69-year-old retired state worker, said...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Amid evidence that a local nonprofit organization may have funneled grant money into illegal political campaign contributions, Mayor Gavin Newsom asked the city controller Thursday to conduct an audit to determine how the organization used city grant money. Newsom made his request after a San Francisco Chronicle investigation discovered the Neighborhood Resources Center, a nonprofit founded to assist Asian immigrants, had received nearly $200,000 in city funds to provide multilingual services but that few services had actually been provided. Newsom asked that the city controller and the city attorney's office investigate "the validity of the allegations"...