Bribe Solicited in Shadow of City Hall

Criminal investigators will not comment on their ongoing probe of corruption in the Los Angeles Building and Safety Department, but the conviction last year of former department engineer John Kaldawi revealed that on at least one occasion, a $10,000 bribe was solicited in the shadow of City Hall.

Kaldawi was caught during a sting operation seeking the bribe from Pardis Ashouri, a local lawyer whose parents owned an auto body shop. Ashouri paid Kaldawi at the Olive Tree restaurant on July 29, 1993.

The restaurant, a popular lunch spot for city workers and police officers across from City Hall and a block from LAPD headquarters, has tables set in front of picture windows facing the street.

“It was an absolutely brazen case,” said Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Goul of the incident. “The fact that he would do something like this across from City Hall is indicative of what might be a larger problem.”

Kaldawi was fined and sentenced last year to four years probation and community service. His attorney, Mitchell Egers, said he has appealed the conviction and declined to comment.

The day before the Kaldawi sting, building inspector Luther Hunt was convicted for soliciting a $6,000 bribe from a San Fernando Valley homeowner. Hunt wrote the amount of the bribe on a section of dry wall at the house, which the victim cut out and submitted as evidence.

According to Goul, attorney Ashouri went to the district attorney’s office after Kaldawi told him that Ashouri would have to pay a bribe in exchange for a building permit. The district attorney’s staff decided to put a hidden tape recorder on Ashouri and send him to the Olive Tree for an afternoon meeting with Kaldawi. Some excerpts of their taped conversation:

Ashouri: I like your Rolex watch.

Kaldawi: Thank you. . . . You look nervous and afraid. Relax. . . .

Ashouri: You see a lot of body shop people go through the same thing I do?

Kaldawi: You better believe it. . . . So how do you like being an attorney?

Ashouri: I hate it. I hate it.

Kaldawi: You know what is the best thing for you?. . . . Go into the field of land development. You will make tons of money. . . .

Ashouri: On these plans, I’ve bypassed the hearing process?

Kaldawi: Yes, but I’d rather not talk about it now. . . .

Ashouri: So for $10,000 I don’t have to go through the hearing process? . . . I don’t want to go through this and have the city call me . . . and tell me you have to go through this hearing.”

Kaldawi: That could not happen. Just got to make sure who writes the things. . . .

Ashouri: You mean the permits?. . . . You’re one of them ?

Kaldawi: Right. Just relax. . . .

Ashouri: I still don’t know about it, the other people who take care of it.

Kaldawi: I’m the least.

Ashouri: You’re the least? So there are more people higher up?

Kaldawi: You better believe it. You better believe it.

When offered a $10,000 check, Kaldawi told Ashouri that payment would have to be in cash or “the guys up there” would revoke Ashouri’s permit. “You’re not dealing with me only, I’m just a front,” Kaldawi said.

Prosecutor Goul said that because Kaldawi would not name the alleged “guys up there,” no one else was arrested in the case. He declined to say whether Kaldawi’s implication of others led to the current investigation of Building and Safety Department employees.