Psychic, Astrologer Influenced Citron, Grand Jury Told : On the Record

Testimony before the Orange County Grand Jury reveals new details about what happened both before and after the county’s massive investment losses were disclosed in December last year:

“Matt said, ‘Bob had told me about his psychic and Bob had a mail-order astrologist that gave him interest rate predictions and a psychic he consulted.’ I thought we were in a lot deeper problem than anyone could possibly imagine.”

--Eileen Walsh, Former county finance director, describing Assistant Treasurer Matt Raabe’s account of his conversations with Treasurer-Tax Collector Robert L. Citron

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“I just recall Roger saying we need to put some distance between us. This is Citron’s problem. We can’t take the hit, is maybe the term. . . . Words to that effect. It may not have been exactly that, but that was the inference, the intent.”

--Ernie Schneider, Former county administrative officer, describing Supervisor Roger R. Stanton’s reaction to news of massive investment losses.

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“I thought [Citron] was earning these earnings outside of normal methods . . . and then he was using that profit to give more money to the districts than they would have earned normally. And once that got to the number that he felt was the appropriate earnings rate, and he chose 7.85[%], he gave the rest to the [county] general fund.”

--Ronald S. Rubino, Former budget director, discussing how other agencies’ interest earnings were diverted to the county.

Source: Orange County Grand Jury