State investigating possible payments to O.J. Mayo

The California attorney general’s office is investigating whether funds from a sickle-cell charity were illegally used to pay for benefits to former USC basketball player O.J. Mayo, a state Department of Justice special agent said Friday.

Special agent Danny Kim in Los Angeles said he is looking into whether “any funds or credit cards were taken or used under the foundation’s name and used for other purposes.”

The possible charitable trust violations appear at most to be misdemeanors, Kim said.

However, the Department of Justice subpoena and warrant power could accelerate investigations by the NCAA and Pacific 10 Conference and a USC internal probe into any possible wrongdoing by Mayo, his mentor, Rodney Guillory, or Tony Hicks, chief executive of the L.A.-based National Organization of Sickle Cell Prevention and Awareness Foundation.

In a report earlier this month by ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” Hicks, also known by the alias Amonra Elohim, was identified as a convicted felon.

Louis Johnson, a former advisor to Mayo, told ESPN that Hicks allowed Guillory to use an American Express card registered to the sickle cell organization.

Hicks was not immediately available for comment Friday, and Guillory did not respond to messages left for him at his Inglewood home earlier this week.

Guillory, according to Johnson, purchased thousands of dollars of clothing, a flat-screen television, several meals and a hotel room in Hermosa Beach for Mayo to stay in with his girlfriend.

Johnson reportedly showed ESPN receipts of the purchases.

Kim said he has spent a week reading through some background of the case after it was referred to him by a state deputy attorney general.

Of Johnson, Kim said he’s “very interested in talking to him, and reading those receipts over.”

Regarding Mayo’s possible culpability, Kim earlier told ESPN.com, “I don’t think we want to go there. I don’t know if there’s any penal code charges we can charge him [with] for [accepting goods from Guillory with that card].”

He told The Times, “It’s not a big priority case among all the things we do, I’m not even a big fan of college basketball, but I understand it’s important, and we’ll get it checked out.”

Attorney general spokesman Abraham Arredondo declined to confirm the investigation had begun, saying only that the office “seeks to administer the charitable trust laws equitably and efficiently.”

Also, a Times search of the sickle cell charity through IRS records failed to locate the charity, although an IRS spokesman said the charity may not have gathered sufficient donations to merit the designation most nonprofit organizations attain.

 lance.pugmire@latimes.com