Cerrell’s Records Seized as Taxi Inquiry Widens : Lobbyist: Investigators find no impropriety in his files, but investigation of L.A. airport contract case is continuing.

Expanding their corruption probe of an airport taxicab contract, Los Angeles police this week seized records from the offices of prominent political consultant and lobbyist Joseph Cerrell, according to court documents made public Thursday.

Detectives conducting a broad investigation of city contracts and political fund raising on Wednesday raided the Hancock Park office of Cerrell Associates and served a search warrant on the consulting firm’s bank, court records show. Investigators said Thursday that they found no evidence of impropriety, but that the inquiry was continuing.

Police are interested in more than $32,000 in payments Cerrell’s firm received during the last few years from Taxicab Management, a client that until earlier this month managed taxi operations at Los Angeles International Airport, according to a police affidavit filed in support of the search warrant.

Cerrell declined through his office to be interviewed. But Hal Dash, president of Cerrell Associates, said after speaking with Cerrell: “We have violated no laws. . . . There has been absolutely no wrongdoing on our part.

“We have discussed this in-house,” he added. “There is (the) matter of confidentiality (with a client) and we cannot discuss it at all.”

For several months, police have been investigating allegations of misuse of funds and possible payoffs of airport employees by Taxicab Management and its president, Bezhad Bitaraf, the police affidavit says. Investigators said they suspect that Cerrell’s firm may have served as a conduit for alleged payments.

Bitaraf and his attorney, Steven Neimand, could not be reached for comment Thursday. Earlier, his attorney had declined to comment, but did say that all of the taxi operations funds had been accounted for properly.

Joe Clair, an airport executive whose division oversees the taxicab contract, strongly denied that airport employees received payoffs or that Bitaraf’s company received favored treatment.

Under a contract with the airport, Bitaraf’s company collected more than $1.5 million a year in special fees levied on airport taxi customers. A portion of the money went to the airport and the rest was to be used for taxicab operations, such as maintaining a cab holding area and regulating the flow of hundreds of cabs through the congested airport each day.

Bitaraf’s company was supposed to operate on a nonprofit basis, according to the city contract. But one police affidavit from an earlier search warrant says investigators have found that the company accumulated tens of thousands of dollars in special accounts, including a $26,000 payment from a catering company that used his taxi holding lot. Also, police said, the company contributed more than $4,100 to campaigns for Mayor Tom Bradley and City Council members since 1986.

“The concern is whether this is public money or private money,” Police Capt. Doug Watson said. “If it is public money, you can’t use it to make political contributions.”

Attention turned to Cerrell because of payments from Taxicab Management and allegations by a longtime airport employee, who requested anonymity, the latest police affidavit says. The informant said that in recent years getting LAX business requires hiring a lobbyist, and Cerrell, who is friends with some commissioners and has raised political funds for the mayor, can place key calls to help land contracts. The informant said Cerrell is considered “the No. 1 player” among airport lobbyists, the affidavit says.

It also says investigators suspect that Cerrell’s firm could have been a conduit for alleged Taxicab Management payments to city employees. Investigators noted that Taxicab Management’s payments to Cerrell appeared to be outside of the activities envisioned by the city contract. The payments were not included on financial statements that the taxi firm was required to submit to the airport, the affidavit says.

In addition, city records show that Cerrell and his associates did not publicly disclose lobbying payments from Taxicab Management as apparently required by the city’s lobbying law.

Cerrell President Dash said, “Everything has been properly reported,” but he declined to elaborate.

On Thursday, Watson said records recovered from Cerrell’s office show that Cerrell and Taxicab Management did indeed have formal consultant-client business dealings and there was no evidence of a covert relationship. However, he said, investigators still must cull through banking records and the investigation of the payments is continuing.

Cerrell told police that the payments from Taxicab Management were for lobbying on airport taxi issues, according to the police affidavit. He said his senior account executive, Howard Sunkin, had been assigned to work on airport taxicab matters, such as better placement of cabstands and struggles between taxis and shuttle vans.

The investigation of Taxicab Management began last year after Mayor Bradley personally referred an anonymous tip about possible payoffs to the Los Angeles Police Department. In part because of the investigation, a new nonprofit corporation, Authorized Taxi Supervision, which is controlled by the taxi industry has been given the contract to manage airport taxis.

Bitaraf, the sole owner of Taxicab Management, works for the new company. The new company, Authorized Taxicab Supervision, is under strict new guidelines that prohibit political contributions and hiring lobbyists.

Recently, Cerrell has shifted the bulk of his business from political campaigns to public relations and lobbying, which in Los Angeles focus on City Hall and the airport.

Cerrell also has been a political fund-raiser for Mayor Tom Bradley. He was among an inner circle of supporters summoned to the mayor’s mansion in 1989 to help launch a legal defense fund for Bradley, whose personal finances and public actions have come under scrutiny by local, state and federal investigations.

Campaign records show that Cerrell was an intermediary for at least $4,600 in contributions for the mayor’s defense fund, including a $100 contribution from Taxicab Management.