Van de Kamp Reopens Robbins Funding Probe

State Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp has reopened an investigation into allegations that Sen. Alan Robbins (D-Tarzana) illegally used campaign funds to finance a real estate development in Ventura County, it was announced on Friday.

Investigators from Van de Kamp’s office immediately moved to subpoena documents from Robbins concerning the property deal, Asst. Atty. Gen. N. Eugene Hill said.

The probe centers on the development of Strathearn Ranch, a 3,850-acre parcel near Moorpark in which the lawmaker holds a financial interest.

Robbins said he was confident that the renewed investigation would find no impropriety.

“There were never any campaign funds that went into the Ranch, period,” he said.

Van de Kamp’s office looked into Robbins’ role in the Strathearn Ranch transaction two years ago as part of a broad investigation into more than $400,000 in loans that the lawmaker made from his political campaign treasury. Many of the loans went to campaign contributors and business associates of the senator.

But in March, 1988, Van de Kamp announced he had closed the investigation because there was no evidence that any of the loans were used for projects that would benefit Robbins. This would have been a violation of the state law barring the personal use of campaign funds--a civil violation punishable by a fine of twice the amount spent improperly. At the time, the senator insisted that the loans were made to others by his campaign committee as investments--a practice that would be permitted under the state campaign law.

However, Hill said on Friday that the attorney general’s office reopened its investigation because of sworn statements signed by Robbins as part of a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles involving the Strathearn Ranch property. The documents, Hill said, indicate that one loan may have helped finance the development.

“The statements (by Robbins) made under penalty of perjury in the private litigation contradict information he personally provided to this office,” Hill said. “The purpose of reopening the investigation is to determine what the facts are.”

The court document was part of a countersuit filed by Robbins and Northlake Land Co. against one of his partners in the Strathearn Ranch property, Jerry Simms.

But Robbins denied that his sworn statement contradicts what he told Van de Kamp’s investigators two years ago.

“They were given access to all the records when they did their investigation (before),” he said. “If they want to look at them again, they can look at them again.”

The new investigation of Robbins adds to the woes facing the veteran lawmaker, who is also the subject of an ongoing federal investigation into Capitol political corruption.

In that probe, a Senate aide who had become an FBI informant asked for Robbins’ help in winning approval for special-interest legislation. The bill was actually part of an elaborate FBI sting.

Robbins directed the aide, John Shahabian, to then-Sen. Joseph B. Montoya (D-Whittier) and suggested that a payment of $3,000 would be needed to win Montoya’s support for the bill.

The tape of the conversation with Robbins was played for the jury that recently convicted Montoya of seven counts of extortion, racketeering and money laundering. On the tape, Robbins refused Shahabian’s offer of a payment, saying, “I don’t need to be taken care of on every bill that comes through.”