Former Trash Exec Portrayed as Victim

The fraud allegations against former Orange trash-hauling executive Jeffrey Hambarian stem from an elaborate conspiracy hatched by others, his lawyer said Thursday in his opening statement.

Other supposedly illegal actions that Hambarian is accused of were actually typical business practices in the industry, said attorney Mark Geragos, speaking to the Orange County Superior Court jury in Santa Ana in a folksy tone for less than an hour.

“There wasn’t anything hidden, nothing untoward,” Geragos said as he paced in front of the jury box without notes. “There was certainly nothing that was criminal.”

Instead, the lawyer said, Hambarian should be credited with saving Orange residents money through his negotiations with vendors, including using his business prowess to negotiate favorable terms with a Los Angeles County landfill operator.

Prosecutors say Hambarian bilked the city of Orange out of $4.3 million over more than a decade -- including receiving almost $630,000 in kickbacks from the landfill operator, which were disguised as a “brokerage fee.”

Senior Deputy Dist. Atty. Ronald Cafferty also alleged during his opening statement Wednesday that Hambarian padded and faked invoices sent to his recycling company and pocketed the excess money.

Geragos said Thursday that the disputed invoices were fabricated by a vendor that sold trash-truck parts to Hambarian. The brothers who owned the parts company, like others implicated in the alleged schemes, will lie to jurors about their involvement because the government has promised them immunity, the lawyer said.

“Witnesses are going to come in here and basically say anything,” Geragos said, “like puppets on a string.”

He told jurors that his client had been falsely accused because of a plot concocted by former Orange public works manager Phil Pierce and the trash hauler’s accountant -- Pierce because he resented the Hambarian family’s growing wealth and accountant Steven Nakata because Jeffrey Hambarian refused to participate in a scheme that involved double-charging the city for accounting fees.

Nakata is expected to testify, but Pierce died of a brain tumor after the allegations surfaced in 1997.

Hambarian, 50, had devoted himself to trying to save the city money, resulting in trash rates for residents that were consistently the lowest in Orange County, Geragos said. Since the Hambarians were forced to sell their trash and recycling companies, he said, Orange’s rates have skyrocketed.

When it forced Jeffrey Hambarian out of the trash business, “the city of Orange killed the goose that was laying the golden egg,” Geragos said.

The trial is expected to last up to four months.

If convicted of all the charges, Hambarian -- who remains free on bail -- could face more than 10 years in prison and millions of dollars in fines.