Ex-Brown Aide Held in Money Laundering

FBI agents on Friday arrested Richard T. Silberman, a prominent San Diego businessman and powerful California Democratic Party fund-raiser, on suspicion of laundering money undercover agents told him was coming from Colombian narcotics traffickers.

Silberman, who held a succession of top state posts under former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., was taken into custody in mid-afternoon while negotiating to launder $1.1 million from an undercover FBI agent posing as a representative of the narcotic traffickers, Thomas A. Hughes, special agent in charge of the San Diego FBI office, said at a press conference.

Hughes said Silberman, 59, will be held at the federal Metropolitan Correction Center in downtown San Diego until he is arraigned next week on federal money laundering charges.

Silberman is a millionaire former bank president who, among other things, was instrumental in building the Jack-in-the-Box hamburger chain. He served former Gov. Brown in a variety of posts, including chief of staff, and was a major political fund-raiser for Brown. In San Diego, he has held a wide variety of civic posts. There is even a bridge named after him.

His wife, Susan Golding, chairs the San Diego County Board of Supervisors and is considered a potential Republican candidate for lieutenant governor next year. Hughes said Golding had no knowledge of the alleged laundering.

Culminating a 2 1/2-year investigation, FBI agents also arrested Chris George Poulos, 62, of San Diego, also known as Chris Petti, and were seeking the arrest of Jack N. Myers, 43, and Darryl Nakatsuka, 42, both of Los Angeles on similar allegations of money laundering. Hughes described Petti as an associate of the Chicago La Cosa Nostra, an organized crime group whose operations in Southern California and Nevada had triggered the investigation.

Hughes said that Myers and Nakatsuka were involved in the money laundering as intermediaries between Silberman and the undercover agent.

Using search warrants, FBI agents late Friday searched the offices of Yuba Natural Resources Inc. of San Diego, a publicly traded firm that deals in precious mining operations. Silberman is chairman of the firm. Agents also searched the offices of Adams Investments, also known as Hamilton-Williams and Co. in Westlake Village, and the First Transnational Co. in Los Angeles, Hughes said.

Intelligence officers from both the San Diego police and county sheriff’s departments participated in the investigation, which Hughes said began as an effort to pierce the activities of Petti.

Well-known to San Diego law enforcement officials, Petti was described in 1986 as the top organized crime official in San Diego by the Nevada Gaming Control Board, which recommended that he be barred from casinos in that state.

Hughes said that Silberman first came to the attention of FBI agents in October, 1988.

“Mr. Silberman entered the case by approaching Chris Petti and wanting to conduct money laundering,” Hughes said. Petti, Hughes said, introduced Silberman to an FBI undercover agent who had infiltrated Petti’s operation posing as an operative responsible for laundering money from Colombian drug traffickers.

Hughes said that Silberman “sought out” the undercover agent and offered to provide a money-laundering service. Both Petti and Silberman persuaded the undercover agent to launder money through Silberman, Hughes said.

On Nov. 30, 1988, Silberman accepted $100,000 from the undercover agent, who had told him the money was coming from narcotics operations, Hughes said. On Feb. 22, of this year, Silberman again made a transaction, this time for $200,000, “for money-laundering purposes,” Hughes said.

Hughes said that the $100,000 and $200,000 amounts were “test” deliveries leading to the negotiations for the $1.1 million that were under way when Silberman was arrested Friday.

Hughes declined to identify the source of the laundered money or to give details of Yuba Resources or the two Los Angeles-area companies which were searched Friday. He said more information would be available when the federal affidavit is unsealed next week.

Hughes said that Silberman, both in telephone taps and in statements, spoke of having performed money laundering in the past.

Also contributing to this report were Times staff writers Anthony Perry, Armando Acuna and Greg Johnson.