Alatorre Probe Focus Shifts to Source of Alleged Bribes

The corruption investigation surrounding former Los Angeles Councilman Richard Alatorre, who has agreed to plead guilty to felony tax evasion, is now focusing in part on individuals who allegedly tried to bribe the lawmaker with cash.

The disclosure of an ongoing investigation and Alatorre’s acceptance of thousands of dollars in cash to influence his official actions was made Tuesday by the U.S. attorney’s office.

Alatorre, meanwhile, has sent a letter to Sacramento saying he will resign from his $114,000-a-year job on the state Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board, according to a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem John Burton (D-San Francisco). Alatorre was appointed to the post by a Senate committee headed by Burton after the councilman opted not to seek reelection in 1999.

Alatorre’s attorney declined to comment Tuesday, and Alatorre has not returned phone calls. But in a plea agreement he signed Sunday, Alatorre admitted he “deprived and attempted to deprive the citizens of Los Angeles of their right to honest services.”

In exchange for his guilty plea, federal prosecutors agreed not to charge the ex-councilman or his wife “with offenses arising out of accepting or soliciting the payment of bribes, deprivation of honest services, mail fraud, bank fraud and tax fraud . . . “

Assistant U.S. Atty. Alicia Villarreal, who oversaw the case, declined to discuss the ongoing investigation. She said Alatorre’s acknowledgments of criminality justified the probe, which lasted four years and involved dozens of subpoenas and appearances by Alatorre associates before federal grand juries.

“It’s not a run-of-the-mill tax evasion case,” Villarreal said. “It encompasses his admission to his corrupt activities.”

Alatorre was chairman of the City Council’s Budget and Finance Committee and also served as the founding chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversaw billions of dollars in contracts.

Investigators are now shifting their attention to the origins of more than $10,000 that Alatorre admitted accepting from “third party sources” while on the council and MTA board in 1996, according to court records and sources familiar with the probe. The suspected sources of the cash were not named. Court records do note that an intermediary passed the payments to Alatorre, who deposited them in his personal bank account.

Alatorre agreed to plead guilty to one count of tax evasion involving nearly $42,000 in cash that he failed to report on his 1996 tax returns. The deal, scheduled to be presented to a federal judge Monday, calls for Alatorre to pay back taxes and penalties to be determined by the Internal Revenue Service. He also agreed to eight months of house detention and three years’ probation.

The investigation intensified after The Times reported in late 1997 that Alatorre allegedly showed up at City Hall with wads of $100 bills after meetings with contractors.