Moore Aide’s Campaign Got $2,000 From FBI ‘Company’

The day after the Legislature gave final approval to a bill benefiting a bogus company set up by the FBI, an aide to the measure’s author received a $2,000 contribution to his local election campaign from the phony firm, according to records obtained Thursday.

Tyrone Netters, an aide to Assemblywoman Gwen Moore (D-Los Angeles), reported the $2,000 contribution from Peachstate Capital West Ltd. in the latest filing for his debt-ridden 1986 campaign for a seat on the board of a local public utility district.

Netters helped steer two Moore bills--one in 1986 and another this year--through the Legislature. Both were purportedly written to help Peachstate and an earlier FBI-created “company”--Gulf Shrimp Fisheries Inc.--build a shrimp-processing plant in West Sacramento.

Both bills won easy approval in the Legislature but were vetoed by Gov. George Deukmejian, who had been tipped off by the FBI.

This year’s bill was sent to the governor June 30. Netters reported receiving the Peachstate contribution July 1.

Earlier in the year, Netters reported a $3,500 contribution from Peachstate. In 1986, he received a series of campaign loans and contributions totaling $6,147 and a consulting fee of $3,300 from Northern California Research Associates. The money was provided by FBI-created Gulf Shrimp, according to Northern California Research records.

Last week, Netters left the job he had held with Moore for the last five years to join the staff of the Assembly Rules Committee, according to Bob Connelly, chief administrative officer for the committee.

Neither Netters nor his attorney could be reached for comment Thursday.

Connelly said that Netters asked to be reassigned to his new job, helping the Rules Committee computerize its records. “He felt he needed a change,” Connelly said. Netters will retain his current $37,212 yearly salary.

Shortly after the sting first came to light, Netters offered to resign from his aide job, but Moore refused to accept the offer, according to one source who asked for anonymity.

Several sources familiar with the federal investigation said that Netters and Moore are among the targets of the FBI sting, which was aimed at uncovering political corruption.

On Aug. 24, FBI agents raided the Capitol offices of Moore and Netters, as well as Assembly Republican Leader Pat Nolan of Glendale, Assemblyman Frank Hill (R-Whittier), Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier) and Nolan aide Karin Watson. No one has been indicted, but the search warrants served to the legislators and their aides said that investigators were seeking evidence of violations of the federal Anti-Extortion Act.

Late last month, federal investigators began to subpoena personnel records for a number of legislative employees, according to Connelly and Cliff Berg, the Senate Rules Committee’s executive officer.

On Thursday, Berg said that the U.S. attorney’s office sought the records of employees of Montoya as well as Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Van Nuys) and former Sen. Paul Carpenter, now a member of the state Board of Equalization. The investigators subpoenaed state-paid travel records of certain aides to Montoya, but Berg declined to name them.

Connelly refused to identify the Assembly members whose aides were the subject of the federal subpoenas.

About the same time, federal investigators subpoenaed personal records of former Assembly aide Darryl Freeman, according to a source close to the investigation.

Freeman was president of Superior Valley Small Business Development Corp., a nonprofit group that in 1986 guaranteed a $100,000 loan to the FBI’s “company.” Later, he became a lobbyist, working through Northern California Research Associates to win passage of the first of the two FBI-sponsored bills.

Times staff writer Daniel M. Weintraub contributed to this story.