New Indictment Charges Moreno, Co-Defendants Also Lied to FBI

A federal grand jury returned a new indictment Tuesday against Santa Ana Councilman Ted R. Moreno and two others, bringing additional charges that they lied to the FBI while under investigation for extortion and money laundering.

The new indictment, which replaces one handed down Aug. 25, adds three charges of making material false statements. It also restates 24 counts of conspiracy, extortion and money laundering that the original indictment leveled against Moreno, Councilman Tony Espinoza and former council candidate Hector Olivares.

The grand jury alleges that Moreno led an effort to extort money from two businessmen for his and his colleagues’ 1996 political campaigns in exchange for council support on requests the businessmen had before the city.

The plot was aimed at getting a Moreno-backed slate elected to take majority control of the City Council, according to the indictment.

The false-statement charges allege that when interviewed by FBI agents in April 1997, Moreno denied taking any cash from one of the businessmen. It also alleges that Espinoza and Olivares, in separate interviews, said they weren’t aware that Moreno had accepted the cash. All knew their statements were false, the indictment alleges.

Prosecutors have said they have audio and videotape evidence of Moreno accepting money from the businessman, service station owner Vaskin “Victor” Koshkerian.

“A person who has the FBI knocking at their door has some choices,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. John Hueston. “They can say, ‘I don’t want to talk to you.’ They can invite them in and tell the truth. Or they can tell lies and hope to send them off in a different direction--and the last is what happened here.”

But Moreno emphatically maintained his innocence and scoffed at the new charge. He said Tuesday that the two FBI agents who visited his home told him he was not under investigation.

“They said, ‘We know you’re a straight guy. . . . We don’t want to ruin your reputation.’ That’s what I remember them saying,” Moreno said. “But looking back, obviously they were lying.”

He also denied the more substantive charges. “There was never, ever any extortion,” he said. “We never said ‘You give us this, we’ll give you that.’ ”

Moreno, Espinoza and Olivares pleaded not guilty to the original charges. They are to be arraigned on the new indictment Oct. 12. A fourth defendant, former council candidate Roman Palacios, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to extort and has been cooperating with authorities.

Olivares’ attorney, Mark Rosen, called the new charges pretrial maneuvering. “It’s a standard prosecutorial tactic,” Rosen said. “You try to throw in everything you can and you hope something sticks.” He called the additional count the point in the case “where they charge you with not agreeing with the U.S. attorney’s version of the case.”

Espinoza’s attorney, James Asperger, was not available for comment.

Moreno, Espinoza and Olivares were not under oath at the time of the FBI interviews, but a false-statements charge can be applied to anyone who knowingly falsifies, conceals or covers up a material fact to a federal investigative agency, Hueston said.