Former Irvine City Council member charged with perjury, multiple felonies in alleged election fraud
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- The Orange County district attorney’s office announced that Tammy Kim was charged with 10 felonies. The former Irvine City Council member is accused of lying about her residency.
Only a few months ago, former Irvine Vice Mayor Tammy Kim had aspirations of returning to the City Council she previously served on for four years.
Now her immediate goal is to fight off charges that could put her in prison for several years.
The Orange County district attorney’s office announced Thursday afternoon that Kim was charged with 10 felonies tied to allegedly lying about her residency during her City Council tenure and while campaigning for mayor last fall.
Kim was formally charged with three felony counts of perjury by declaration, three felony counts of filing a false document, and one felony count each of a public official aiding the illegal casting of votes, of filing false nominations papers, of knowing of the registration of someone not entitled to vote and of voter registration fraud. She was also charged with a misdemeanor of making a false statement.
She could spend up to 11 years and two months in state prison and county jail if convicted on all counts.
She is scheduled to be arraigned Friday morning.
Kim briefly responded to a call from The Times, saying she was advised not to share too much per her attorney, Caroline Hahn.
“We’re entering a not guilty plea,” Kim said.
Three Korean American women win seats in Congress, including Young Kim and Michelle Steel from Southern California.
Hahn added that she and her client “planned to launch a vigorous defense” but did not answer further questions.
Kim is accused of using two fraudulent addresses while running for mayor in the November 2024 election and then in a City Council special election in early 2025, according to the criminal complaint. She owned a condo in the city’s 3rd District, where she had lived since 2015, according to a separate lawsuit filed against Kim to get her thrown off the City Council ballot.
Kim won election to the Irvine City Council in November 2020, receiving nearly 44,000 votes a 14-person, top-three-candidate race.
At that time, city elections in Irvine used an at-large voting system, meaning candidates could live anywhere in the city.
The city moved to district elections in the fall 2024, requiring council members to live in the districts they represent. Only voters from those districts could vote for those candidates.
Kim served until November 2024 when she ran for and ultimately lost a mayoral campaign to Councilmember Larry Agran by a margin of nearly 5,000 votes.
The district attorney’s office believes Kim improperly used an address to run for mayor, no longer claiming to live in the 3rd District condo she had owned for a decade.
To run for mayor, Kim changed her California driver’s license and her voter registration to a home in the 5th District, where she never lived, according to the criminal complaint.
The home belonged to a family Kim met through a Korean teaching class, the complaint alleges. Kim did not inform the family that she was using their address, according to the complaint.
She has been charged with certifying that address as her own under the penalty of perjury.
Irvine, like many California suburbs, is in the middle of a demographic transition to a majority minority population. The clashes between old residents and new reveal conflicting perspectives on war, U.S. history and what it means to be American.
Kim eventually finished her campaign and voted in November’s mayoral race based out of the 5th Diistrict home.
Shortly after her defeat, Kim declared her candidacy in December to fill the now- vacant 5th District seat, which Agran left after winning the mayoral election.
Kim eventually found a room in another 5th District home on Jan. 10 and changed her California driver’s registration that same day, according to the complaint. She then filed new nomination paperwork with the new 5th District address, according to the complaint.
Later that month, former mayoral candidate Ron Scolesdang sued Kim, claiming that she was fraudulently using an incorrect address. Scolesdang had hired a private investigator to monitor Kim, according to that lawsuit.
Kim eventually dropped out of the race on Feb. 7, the same day a Superior Court judge removed her name from the ballot.
Betty Franco Martinez won the special election.
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