Hahn Faults Bradley : City Attorney Files a Civil Suit but No Criminal Charges : He Says Mayor Has Not Been Vindicated

Insisting that “no vindication of the mayor’s conduct is intended,” City Atty. James K. Hahn today sued Mayor Tom Bradley for allegedly failing to disclose properly several stock transactions but declared there was insufficient evidence to bring criminal charges against the embattled five-term Democrat.

Hahn announced the six-count civil lawsuit, which seeks fines for alleged violation of state laws that require public figures to disclose their financial holdings, as he released a 1,165-page report on a wide-ranging and unprecedented six-month investigation of Bradley.

In addition to the lawsuit, Hahn said some related leads pursued by his investigators have been passed along to the district attorney and other law enforcement agencies for further investigation. He noted that Bradley’s stock holdings are under investigation by federal authorities.

Hahn’s report appears to bring to a close his office’s role in investigating Bradley’s personal finances and business relationships with individuals or institutions that did business with the city. It began in late March with news reports of Bradley’s employment by Far East National Bank and Valley Federal Savings and Loan Assn., then was expanded to include the Task Force on Africa/Los Angeles Relations, whose executive director, a friend and business partner of Bradley, has failed to account for about $180,000 in city funds.

The report addressed numerous allegations that arose in the press and elsewhere during the investigation, and in every case concludes there is not enough evidence to charge the mayor with a crime.

Report Adds Caveat

“However,” Hahn’s report noted, “no vindication of the mayor’s conduct is intended, implied or should in any way be inferred.”

Hahn devoted roughly half of his voluminous report to Bradley’s relationship with Far East bank, which paid him $18,000 as an adviser throughout 1988. Bradley returned the money in March of this year when he learned news organizations were preparing stories about his bank employment.

Regarding Bradley’s dealings with Far East National Bank, the city attorney said: “The mayor clearly stepped into that gray area of the law between factual innocence and a chargeable offense, but our system of justice rightfully gives him and the rest of us the benefit of the doubt in such circumstances.”

The mayor was prepared to respond to the report at 5 p.m. in his office, his aides said. He had balked at commenting on allegations against him throughout the Hahn probe.

Hahn’s report had been seen as crucial to Bradley’s political stature, as well as to Hahn’s, and as a result City Hall had been gripped with a fever of anticipation over the past week. His decision not to bring criminal charges at this time, however, had been reported previously, and the main question was whether the city attorney would find any fault with the mayor’s behavior beyond faulty record-keeping.

Given Advance Copies

City Council members and reporters were given copies prior to an 11 a.m. press conference, at which Hahn commented on his findings.

“Just because we found no violation of the law doesn’t mean that what the mayor did was right,” a low-key Hahn said. “Public officials must avoid even the appearance of a conflict in the performance of their duties.”

One of the most surprising aspects of the report dealt with how Bradley came to be hired by Far East, and what bank Chairman Henry Hwang expected from the mayor in return.

“We hoped he can open some doors for us with . . . a major corporation: people that he might know that we are not able to get . . . because we’re a very, very small bank,” Hwang told investigators in a May 17 interview.

Hwang previously had said Bradley’s duties were to court foreign investors for the bank and did not involve any potential conflicts of interest with local firms or city business.

But the report found that Hwang apparently made a “direct solicitation” for city business in January, 1988, when he wrote Bradley a letter spelling out what was needed. At least two other letters were found that indicated Bradley may have known at the time he was employed that the city did business with Far East. In returning the funds in March, 1989, Bradley said he had not realized such a relationship existed and would not have accepted the employment had he known.

‘Circumstantial Evidence’

Further, the report concluded “there is circumstantial evidence” that Bradley attempted to and “did use his official position to influence a governmental decision” to the benefit of Far East.

Testimony before a City Council committee last summer revealed that the mayor had called City Treasurer Leonard Rittenberg on March 22 to inquire about an expiring $1-million city deposit with Far East. After the phone call, Rittenberg ordered that $2 million be deposited with the bank. Work sheets to make it look as if there had been competitive bidding were compiled and someone used white correction fluid to obliterate a reference to the mayor. Bradley and Rittenberg denied the mayor influenced the deposit decision.

“This circumstantial evidence appears damaging and may call into question the mayor’s credibility and judgment in some areas,” the report said. “There is obviously no doubt that ‘but for’ the mayor’s telephone call to Rittenberg, the treasurer’s office would not have deposited” the funds in Far East.

“However, merely proving that the mayor’s phone call caused the treasurer to deposit those funds does not prove that the mayor intended to influence the decision of the treasurer,” Hahn’s report said.

Cites Other Dealings

Hahn and his five-member investigative team also probed Bradley’s annual financial disclosure statements, the subject of the lawsuit, and referred information about his dealings with the troubled investment firm Drexel, Burnham Lambert to federal authorities. A preliminary federal investigation is still in progress.

Additionally, Hahn said he has sent copies of his report to the District Attorney’s Office, the state Fair Political Practices Commission and the state Attorney General.