Senator Spent $732,000 in Campaign Funds for Defense Before He Resigned

Before he resigned in disgrace this week, 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 he spent on private law firms involved in a behind-the-scenes struggle to defend him against corruption charges that ultimately drove him from office.

Between January, 1990, and last June, 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. Robbins resigned Tuesday and acknowledged that he was guilty of using his office for personal gain.

The fourth firm defended him in a separate inquiry by the state attorney general’s office in which no charges were filed.

Robbins, who had represented the East San Fernando Valley in the Senate since 1973, 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 fees is proper if they 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 be 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,” Foster said, especially when the investigation may include a politician’s private business interests.

Foster 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 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 coverage.

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 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 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 he headed filed for bankruptcy and the chief of an Encino bank publicly complained that Robbins has stopped making payments on a $3.8-million loan.

The FBI is still examining millions of dollars’ worth of real estate loans Robbins obtained from the federally insured bank in Encino and from a failed thrift 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.