Swank S.F. Clothier Accused of Swindling City on Rent

Celebrated society clothier Wilkes Bashford, high-priced haberdasher to such San Francisco notables as Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and newspaper columnist Herb Caen, has been indicted on four counts of grand theft.

The indictment, handed down Wednesday evening, only hours before the annual term of the City and County of San Francisco Indictment Grand Jury expired, is the result of an 11-month investigation into accusations that Bashford had evaded paying full rent at the city-owned building housing his store.

Bashford’s attorney, Jeffrey A. Levenberg, also recently conceded that his politically and socially well-connected client had “mistakenly” neglected to record or pay taxes on clothing sales made to his employees and certain select--though unnamed--customers.

This oversight, which Levenberg pegs at about $20,000 a year, but which sworn affidavits by two former Bashford employees place as high as $500,000 a year, has prompted further investigation of the swank Sutter Street store by state auditors.

Bashford has already placed in escrow more than $400,000 to cover past due rent that he owes on the store, located on the ground floor of a city parking garage he has leased since 1966. City officials, however, have estimated that the total back rent due may be closer to $1 million.

The widely publicized investigation, fueled by speculation over how Bashford could short-change the city without challenge for so many years, was marked by public disclosure of an unusual amount of ostensibly secret grand jury testimony.

Business Associate

Some of the testimony was even made public by Superior Court Judge Jack Berman in a bid to squelch charges of cronyism rising out of his efforts to dismiss a top investigator in the case. The judge, a friend of Democratic Speaker Brown, was once a business associate of one of Bashford’s lawyers.

Brown, in turn, is a close friend of Bashford. He once represented the clothier before the board that oversees the building housing Wilkes Bashford Ltd. and sent a personal letter to Mayor Dianne Feinstein seeking to quash a complete audit of Bashford’s books.

Bashford surrendered to authorities late Thursday but was unavailable for comment, as was his associate, Jack Guillaume. The associate was indicted on charges of grand theft and embezzlement in allegedly concealing some of the store’s gross sales.

Under the terms of his lease, Bashford pays a percentage of his gross sales to the city as part of his rent.