3 From D.A.’s Office to Join Orange Recycling Inquiry

At least three Orange County district attorney’s office investigators have been assigned to help police investigate the possibility that owners of an Orange recycling company misappropriated up to $6 million in city funds, officials said Tuesday.

The additional staffing was requested by Orange police, who said the complex case will involve the review of thousands of documents and interviews that they cannot possibly finish without pulling investigators off other cases.

On June 5, the city disclosed that Orange police and the district attorney’s office had launched a criminal investigation in mid-April of Orange Disposal Services Inc. and its recycling subsidiary, Orange Resource Recovery Systems Inc., after a “fraud audit” by a national accounting firm confirmed irregularities with the company’s books.

Both companies were started by Sam and Alyce Hambarian, who have held exclusive contracts since 1955 to collect the city’s garbage. In recent years, their sons have served as company directors.

Three Orange police detectives have been assigned to investigate possible criminal wrongdoing, and the city has said in court documents that salvage revenue belonging to the city “may have been misappropriated for personal use by one or more members of the Hambarian family.”

Police said the new team will work full time on the case.