Campaign Funds Used on Robbins’ Attorneys : Politics: Records show the former state senator’s election committees paid more than $732,000 over an 18-month period, leaving less than $3,000.

Before he resigned in disgrace this week, former state Sen. Alan Robbins was known as a prodigious campaign fund-raiser, stockpiling hundreds of thousands of dollars as a hedge against political challengers.

But today, his campaign coffers are virtually empty, in large part because of the more than $700,000 in contributors’ money the veteran Democrat spent on private lawyers involved in a behind-the-scenes struggle to defend him against the corruption charges that ultimately drove him from office.

Between January, 1990, and June of this year, Robbins’ campaign committees paid more than $732,000 to four law firms in Los Angeles, San Diego and Sacramento, according to campaign reports filed with the state. His campaign accounts now contain less than $3,000.

Three of the firms were involved in Robbins’ losing battle to protect himself from FBI and IRS agents during a two-year federal investigation.

The fourth law firm defended him in a separate probe by the state attorney general’s office that did not lead to charges against him.

Robbins, who had represented the east San Fernando Valley in the Senate since 1973, resigned Tuesday, acknowledging that he was guilty of using his office for personal gain.

He agreed to serve five years in prison and pay a $250,000 fine. He also has cooperated with federal investigators in an ongoing investigation of corruption in the state Capitol.

Under the state’s Political Reform Act, using campaign funds to pay legal bills is proper if the fees relate to problems encountered in the course of an officeholder’s political or governmental activities. A spokeswoman for the state Fair Political Practices Commission said Robbins’ expenditures appeared to fall within the law.

But Lisa Foster, executive director of California Common Cause, a public-interest watchdog group, questioned the ethics of Robbins’ spending, saying he had been unfair to contributors by using their money to defend himself against charges of criminal activities.

“Certainly contributors don’t give assuming you’re going to be defending yourself in a criminal action,” she said, especially when the investigation includes a politicians’ private business dealings.

The FBI is still examining millions of dollars’ worth of real estate loans that Robbins obtained from a federally insured bank in Encino and a failed savings and loan in Orange County. The chairman of Encino-based Independence Bank said recently that Robbins was granted more than $26 million in loans by the bank without adequate security or financial review.

Foster also said Robbins should have set up a special defense fund and told contributors he was raising money specifically to pay his lawyers during the criminal investigation.

“Then people will know what they’re giving to, and they can make that decision consciously,” she said.

Robbins could not be reached for comment Thursday. An aide, Teri Burns, said that few Robbins contributors in the last two years “didn’t have any clue that there was an investigation on,” due to widespread news reports of the probe.

Several contributors interviewed Thursday said they were not upset at how Robbins spent his campaign funds.

“I don’t have any problem with the fact that money was used by him for legal defense,” said Van Nuys lawyer David W. Fleming, who is active in Valley business circles and gave Robbins $500 this year.

“Being a lawyer, I don’t mind that he spent money on lawyers,” Fleming said, laughing and adding that Robbins was an effective legislator who represented his district well.

The lengthy federal investigation also apparently took a personal financial toll on Robbins, who became wealthy building apartment complexes and medical offices with various partners. In recent months a real estate partnership Robbins headed filed for bankruptcy and the chairman of Independence Bank complained that Robbins has stopped making payments on a $3.8-million loan.

According to the campaign reports filed with the state, Robbins spent more than $493,000 on various campaign-related activities in the first six months of this year. Of that total, $425,000 went to the three law firms involved in defending him during the federal investigation.

His campaign funds also were used to pay nearly $13,000 to the Los Angeles law firm of Alschuler, Grossman & Pines, which represented Robbins during an investigation by the state attorney general into allegations that Robbins made loans from his campaign funds that benefited him in a private land deal in Ventura County.

That inquiry was closed in June with no charges against Robbins.

According to court documents, Robbins’ bankrupt real estate venture--in which he has only one partner--owed another $450,000 to Alschuler, Grossman & Pines, which also represents him in a lawsuit by an ex-business partner involving a Venice land deal.

LOTTERY CONTRACTOR LINKED TO ROBBINS: A3