Banker, Mayor Met Before City Deposit

Mayor Tom Bradley met in his City Hall office with Far East National Bank Chairman Henry Hwang early last year while the mayor was serving as a paid adviser to the bank and Hwang was actively soliciting deposits from the city, newly obtained records show.

The March 16, 1988, meeting came five days before the bank received a $1-million city deposit. The mayor has repeatedly insisted that he did not know, during the 12-month period he earned $18,000 as a foreign trade adviser to Far East National Bank, that the bank did business with the city.

No details are known about the meeting, which was revealed in copies of Bradley’s appointments calendar obtained by The Times on Friday. Hwang’s office said he was unavailable for comment. Assistant City Atty. Charles Goldenberg, who is heading the city attorney’s office investigation into Bradley’s financial ties, declined comment late Friday. And a spokesman for the mayor said Bradley, too, would have no comment.

Returns $18,000

Saying he had just learned of the city’s relationship with Far East, Bradley in March of this year returned the $18,000, which he had earned as the only paid member of a bank advisory board from January through December, 1988.

Records obtained earlier this month indicated that Bradley’s office, at least, had been aware of a relationship between the city and Far East. They show that Bradley’s office had received a request in January, 1988, from Hwang for city deposits, and that one of the mayor’s aides then asked City Treasurer Leonard Rittenberg to prepare a response to Hwang’s request.

Bradley faces several investigations into various aspects of his finances, including the city attorney’s probe for a possible conflict of interest concerning his employment by the bank.

“The mayor has made it clear that any questions regarding the exact contents of the inquiry will be deferred until after it is completed,” William Chandler, spokesman for the mayor, said Friday. “Then he will answer any and all questions.”

The 1988 calendar shows that the mayor scheduled a half-hour meeting with Hwang beginning at 8:30 a.m. on March 16. The following Monday, March 21, the bank received a $1-million, one-year deposit from the city treasurer.

Doing Business Since 1979

City records show that Far East has been doing business with the city almost constantly since 1979.

When a $1-million deposit matured on March 22 of this year, the city removed the funds. The following day, Hwang called Bradley to ask if the city had changed its policy of depositing funds in small and minority-owned banks, according to Bradley.

The mayor then called City Treasurer Rittenberg to inquire about the policy. It was during this discussion, Bradley has said in earlier interviews, that he first learned that the city had deposits in Far East.

The following day, Rittenberg personally directed a $1-million deposit to Far East and, several days later, an additional $1 million.

Rittenberg has maintained that neither Bradley nor the mayor’s staff influenced his decision to deposit funds with the bank.

Times staff writer Rich Connell contributed to this article.