L.A. Unified Employees Arrested in Bribery Case

An employee of the Los Angeles Unified School District and a district retiree were arrested Thursday on bribery and embezzlement charges alleging that they received cars and boats from painting contractors in exchange for approving bids.

The Los Angeles district attorney’s office also charged four contractors with bribery and anti-trust violations.

The case involving two low-level employees in the district’s maintenance and operations division grew out of an investigation launched by the Los Angeles Unified School District and turned over to the district attorney last year, a spokeswoman for the office said.

Prosecutors alleged that Billie Joe Simily, 59, of Pasadena, and Richard Steinfeld, 53, of Apple Valley, received bribes including a Bayliner boat for each, a 1997 Ford Expedition and a 1997 Ford F150 truck, costing a total of more than $50,000.

They also alleged that the two employees approved payment for work that was not completed at several schools in the San Fernando Valley and Harbor areas.

Simily retired last January.

Two contractors were charged with bribery, public officer embezzlement and grand theft. Panagiotis (Peter) Adamopoulos, 38, of Northridge, was arrested Thursday. Damianos (Damian) Hadjidamianou, 42, of North Hills, is expected to surrender in about two weeks, prosecutors said.

In a separate case, antitrust charges were filed against contractors Priamos Gennaris, 42, owner of Cam Painting Inc. in Whittier, and Terry Tsetseris, 49, owner of T&M; Construction in Garden Grove.

The case alleges that Gennaris and Tsetseris divided large painting jobs into at least 36 small bids of no more than $15,000 to bypass stringent bidding procedures. They are expected to surrender for arraignment today. Each could be sentenced to a maximum of three years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Stanley Williams would not disclose the total of the bids, but said it was significant.

Computer records of painting contracts issued as part of the Proposition BB bond project show that Cam received at least $720,000 in district work.

Williams said the charges also involve contracts that were not part of the bond project.

The maximum prison terms in the bribery and embezzlement case would be six years for Simily, five years for Steinfeld and four years, eight months, for Hadjidamianou and Adamopoulos.

Los Angeles school officials said the investigation was prompted by employees who noticed irregularities in the contracting process.

Reforms have been put in place as a result of the cases, said spokesman Erik Nasarenko. The issuing of contracts and inspection of work have been assigned to separate units and all small-bid awards are reviewed monthly by the district’s independent analysis unit.