Boland Campaign Fund Investigation Urged

A campaign worker for Democratic Assembly candidate Irene Allert called Friday for a state investigation of anonymous charges that Allert’s Republican opponent, Paula Boland, illegally received campaign funds from unreported real estate transactions.

A Boland spokesman denied the charges and characterized them as an “outlandish, last-minute attack” and “really pathetic.”

Allert and Boland are battling to replace retiring Assemblywoman Marian La Follette (R-Northridge) in the GOP-dominated 38th Assembly District, which arcs across the San Fernando Valley from Hidden Hills in the west to Sunland-Tujunga in the east.

Lewis S. Snow, a friend of Allert and a longtime Lake View Terrace activist, said he filed complaints with the state Fair Political Practices Commission and the state Department of Real Estate asking for an investigation of Boland. He said the charges against her arrived in the form of an unsigned, four-page letter in Allert’s campaign fax machine Thursday.

The letter contends, among other things, that real estate agents employed by Boland, who owns a Red Carpet realty office in Granada Hills, were not reporting sales commissions to the IRS and secretly diverting the money to Boland’s campaign.

The document also contended that Boland and members of her family obtained low- or no-interest real estate loans that were funneled into her campaign without being reported to the state as required by law. Also, the letter said Boland campaign workers received a kickback from unnamed mortgage loan brokers in the form of a four-day, all-expenses-paid trip to Las Vegas in July.

Lewis said he filed his complaints after verifying some information in the letter. He said the writer correctly named several brokers employed by Boland and cited a Sylmar property sale that actually occurred in May.

Boland spokesman Carlos Rodriguez denied the accusations.

“To make these kind of accusations 72 hours before an election is almost criminally irresponsible,” he said. “The only thing they left out is that extraterrestrials have been working behind the scenes to make sure Paula Boland gets elected.”

Rodriguez said Boland’s firm uses banks, not mortgage brokers, to obtain loans for home buyers. He said the real estate market is so weak now that many real estate agents have a hard time earning commissions, “much less give the money to a campaign.”

Boland’s campaign staffers did not take any trip to Las Vegas and her campaign has received no outside loans, Rodriguez said.

Asked if Snow’s complaint was filed with her blessing, Allert said: “I didn’t disagree with putting the complaint in.”

“Lewis felt it was worth looking into,” she said. “As he scratched the surface, things in the letter seemed to be true. It gave the letter veracity.”