4th Version of Bradley Call on Bank Surfaces

Mayor Tom Bradley told auditors that he was concerned that the city might be in “serious, desperate financial straits” when he made a controversial phone call about the withdrawal of funds from a bank that had hired the mayor as an adviser, according to a sworn interview reviewed by The Times.

The interview provides at least the fourth version Bradley has given of his motives for calling City Treasurer Leonard Rittenberg regarding deposits in Far East National Bank. The interview conducted by city auditors Aug. 18 has not been officially released but was reviewed by The Times after it was inadvertently left in a city controller’s office file.

First to Be Made Public

It is the first time that one of the mayor’s sworn accounts of his actions in the Far East Bank matter has been made public.

In a sworn interview with the city controller’s office, Bradley said he was told by Far East President Henry Hwang that the city was withdrawing “all deposits in banks, including a deposit which the city had with Far East National Bank . . . .”

“That, to me, would have indicated we were in serious, desperate financial straits, and I could not believe that, so I needed to have it checked out,” Bradley told the auditors. “I said (to Hwang), ‘I’ll check it out.’ ”

Deputy Mayor Mike Gage said Monday that he could not comment on the specifics because he had not seen the transcript.

“The mayor has never told his full story, and the full story isn’t told with the controller (interview) because of the limited focus of the controller’s inquiry,” Gage said.

He said the mayor’s full story will not be told until a city attorney’s report is released. That report is expected later this week.

Bradley was hired by Far East in January, 1988, as a paid adviser. On March 21, 1989, after the city treasurer’s office told Far East’s Hwang that the deposit would be withdrawn, he called Bradley.

After a March 22 phone conversation between Bradley and Rittenberg, the treasurer redeposited $1 million and added another $1 million a few days later. Bradley and Rittenberg both have denied that the mayor pressured the treasurer into making the deposits.

Bradley’s call to Rittenberg is central to the city attorney’s five-month conflict-of-interest investigation of the mayor. Sources have said the city attorney’s report will recommend large penalties for Bradley’s numerous lapses in complying with state laws requiring disclosure of personal investments. But no criminal conflict-of-interest charges are expected, sources said.

In March, when the Far East controversy broke, the mayor first said he called Rittenberg to determine if the city had deposits with Far East. In April, Bradley was reported to have said in a television interview that the reason he called Rittenberg was to check on reports that the city was changing its policy of investing with minority banks, such as Far East.

In July, the mayor said at a press conference that he called Rittenberg, not to inquire generally about city investment policies, but to “confirm a statement that was made to me that a deposit which had been made to Far East National Bank was being terminated.”

Sworn Testimony

In the newly disclosed sworn testimony given to the auditors in August, Bradley said he phoned Rittenberg after Hwang told him that the treasurer’s office was withdrawing “all deposits in banks.”

“He (Rittenberg) said, ‘It sounds strange . . . because we have lots of money, and we’re looking for places to deposit.’

“He said, ‘I’ll have to check on it,’ ” Bradley recalled, adding that the “only other thing that was said during the conversation we had that day was that Far East National Bank did have a deposit relationship with the city treasurer.”

Bradley also said under oath that “to the best of my recollection,” he did not learn that Far East had a deposit with the city treasurer until Hwang’s March 21 call.

However, records previously released show that Hwang wrote the mayor more than a year earlier--in January, 1988, when Bradley became a paid Far East adviser--seeking assistance in obtaining city deposits. The letter was referred to Bradley’s chief administrative assistant, Anton Calleia, who sent a “rush” inquiry to the treasurer’s office.

Bradley said in the sworn interview that he did not “have any independent recollection of the letter,” although he assumed that it was he who forwarded it to Calleia.

Before the March 22, 1989, phone discussion with Rittenberg, Bradley said he had no conversation with the treasurer or any member of his staff regarding placement of funds in Far East.

Became Concerned

Bradley said that after his March, 1989, discussion with Hwang and Rittenberg, he became concerned about the “political” fallout of his relationship with Far East and his actions. He said he was concerned because of a series of events, including news media inquiries about his ties to financial institutions and his then-pending reelection bid.

He described a daylong series of discussions and assessments with his staff before the decision was made to repay the $18,000 Far East had paid him the previous year.

On other questions, Bradley said he had no idea who “whited out” a notation on a treasurer’s office document that indicated the March, 1989, deposit was made “per the mayor.” One treasurer’s office worker accused Bill Hoss, the city’s cash management director, of obliterating the reference, but Hoss denied it.

Bradley said he had known Hoss for many years, but he and Hoss “never” discussed city investments with Far East or Gibraltar Savings & Loan, a troubled firm in which Bradley had invested in junk bonds.

Bradley said he did not discuss city investments with Hwang in personal meetings in December, 1987, about the time he became a paid adviser, or in March, 1988, days before the city made a $1-million deposit with the bank.

Meanwhile, City Councilmen Zev Yaroslavsky and Michael Woo formally requested Monday that Juanita St. John, the embattled head of a Bradley-backed Africa trade task force, appear before a joint meeting of their two powerful City Council committees Wednesday. They said they want St. John to answer questions about a city controller’s audit released Friday that found St. John owes the city more than $260,000.

‘Governing Body’

“St. John has never been asked by the governing body of this city, the City Council, to account for her activities and those of the Africa task force,” Yaroslavsky said. “The City Council and the people of this city deserve an explanation. . . . It’s the taxpayer’s money.”

Yaroslavsky, chairman of the council’s Finance and Revenue Committee, which held explosive hearings in July into the conduct of the city treasurer that led to reforms in that office, said, “The financial history of the task force is critical to the prevention of such abuse in the future.”

Joining Yaroslavsky’s committee will be Woo’s Governmental Efficiency Committee.

St. John’s attorney, Vicky Podberesky, on Monday said she was not aware of the request and would not comment on the likelihood that her client would appear. St. John is already facing criminal charges for refusing to comply with a subpoena issued on behalf of the city controller seeking financial documents.

The joint committee has also requested in writing that mayoral aide Calleia, City Clerk Elias Martinez and City Administrative Officer Keith Comrie appear.

Times staff writers Glenn F. Bunting and Frederick M. Muir contributed to this story.