Councilmember Curren Price charged with embezzlement, perjury

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June 13, 2023 Updated 7:11 PM PT

Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price was charged with 10 counts of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest on Tuesday, becoming the latest in a years-long parade of elected city officials to face public corruption allegations from state or federal prosecutors.

Price, a 10-year veteran of the City Council, is accused of having a financial interest in development projects that he voted on, and receiving tens of thousands of dollars in medical benefits from the city for his now wife while he was still married to another woman, according to a statement issued by the L.A. County district attorney’s office.

He was charged with five counts of grand theft by embezzlement, three counts of perjury and two counts of conflict of interest, according to a criminal complaint made public Tuesday.

The district attorney’s office alleges that Price’s wife, Del Richardson Price — founder of the consulting company Del Richardson & Associates — received “payments totaling more than $150,000 between 2019 and 2021 from developers before he voted to approve projects.” The perjury charges stem from accusations that Price failed to list income Richardson Price received on government financial disclosure forms, according to the release.

“Curren Price is a long-standing public servant who has given his life to the city of Los Angeles,” Price spokesperson Angelina Valencia said Tuesday. “He looks forward to defending himself once he’s had an opportunity to address these charges.”

Price’s attorney, Dave Willingham, declined to comment, saying he had not seen the complaint. Price left the City Council chamber shortly after Tuesday’s meeting ended around 2 p.m.

The case was launched by the district attorney’s bureau of investigation. It was unclear how long the office had been mulling over charges.

“This alleged conduct undermines the integrity of our government and erodes the public’s trust in our elected officials,” Dist. Atty. George Gascón said in a statement.

The charges come four years after a Times investigation found Price had repeatedly cast votes that affected housing developers and other firms listed as clients of his wife’s consulting company.

City Council President Paul Krekorian said Tuesday evening that he will move to suspend Price during Wednesday’s council meeting. Krekorian intends for the matter to also be heard in a committee before returning to the full council, meaning it will probably take several days before a final decision is reached.

Price said earlier Tuesday that he would step down as the council’s president pro tempore, the body’s No. 2 spot, as well as from his committee assignments.

“While I navigate through the judicial system to defend my name against unwarranted charges filed against me, the last thing I want to do is be a distraction to the people’s business,” Price said in a letter to Paul Krekorian.

Price had been president pro tempore since late October. The role dictates that he lead council meetings when Krekorian is absent, as was the case for much of Tuesday’s meeting.

Price is the fourth current or former council member to face criminal charges in four years. Tuesday’s filing brought fresh disruption to City Hall, where staffers described a sense of deja vu. Price’s colleagues will probably face pressure to suspend him pending trial, given that the council voted twice in the last three years to suspend other members facing criminal charges.

The charges are the latest in a string of criminal allegations and scandals that have rocked City Hall. Last year, the leak of a conversation among City Council President Nury Martinez, Councilmembers Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo and L.A. County Federation of Labor President Ron Herrera containing racist remarks ended Martinez’s council career and drove Herrera from his post.

This year, Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas was found guilty of conspiracy, bribery and fraud for extracting benefits for his son from USC while voting on issues that benefited the school.

Councilmembers Mitch Englander and Jose Huizar also pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in recent years after an FBI investigation.

Price was one of several City Hall figures mentioned in the FBI inquiry after he was named in a federal search warrant filed in November 2018. Federal prosecutors never brought charges against him.

A date has not been set for Price’s arraignment, and he is not going to be arrested, according to the district attorney’s office spokesperson.

According to the complaint, Del Richardson & Associates received six checks from companies either incorporated or co-owned by affordable housing developers whom Price later voted to fund projects for or sell city property to.

In 2021, Price voted to slash the price of a property sold to GTM Holdings from nearly $1 million to $440,000 six months after a company incorporated by GTM Holdings wrote a check to his wife’s firm for about $51,000, court records show.

In 2019, according to the complaint, Price voted to fund a $4.6-million real estate project involving developer Thomas Safran & Associates after his wife’s firm received checks totaling about $35,000 from a company incorporated by Safran.

Reached by phone Tuesday, Safran told The Times, “I don’t know anything about it. I do know Del Richardson.” Before ending the call, he said, “I’m not even talking now. I’m sorry, bye.”

Price is also accused of bilking the city out of roughly $33,000 in medical premiums by listing Richardson Price as his wife on city forms from 2013 to 2017, according to the complaint. Prosecutors allege he used public funds to pay for her healthcare despite the fact that he was still legally married to Lynn Suzette Green. The council member and Richardson Price did not legally marry until 2018, records show.

Price was absent from a meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on the 2028 Olympics and Paralympic Games that he was supposed to chair Tuesday afternoon.

After the council meeting, Councilmember Bob Blumenfield characterized the news as “shocking and depressing and concerning” but said he still didn’t know the specifics of the case.

“Of course, the bringing of charges is going to diminish the already damaged faith in the integrity of the city government,” Blumenfield said. “There’s no question.”

It was a sentiment echoed by former City Ethics Commission President Jessica Levinson, who said the charges filed against Price “will flush public trust down the toilet, to the extent it’s not already in the sewer.”

Concerns about Price voting on contracts involving companies that had done business with Richardson Price‘s firm were previously raised in 2019 when The Times reported that he voted on decisions involving at least 10 companies in the same years they were listed as providing at least $10,000 in income to Del Richardson & Associates.

Despite the public alarm, the criminal complaint says, Price continued taking part in such votes. All of the criminal conduct alleged to involve Del Richardson & Associates took place between September 2019 — at least four months after the initial Times report — and June 2021.

Del Richardson & Associates offers a wide array of services, including relocation assistance, marketing, job recruiting and more, according to its website. Its clients include government agencies such as the L.A. County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Jordan Downs, a housing project overseen by the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles, according to the website.

In 2019, a Price spokesperson said that neither the council member nor his wife had benefited financially from the votes initially identified by The Times. The spokesperson also said Price “has never cast a vote thinking of his or his wife’s financial interest.”

California law bars any public official from making or participating in any governmental decision “in which he knows or has reason to know he has a financial interest.”

It’s unclear what Richardson Price‘s status is with Del Richardson & Associates.

It was acquired in recent years by a nonprofit, according to the company’s website and Price’s financial disclosure forms, which show that Del Richardson & Associates was sold to the Greenwood Seneca Foundation between February 2021 and February 2022.

Richardson Price still received a salary from Del Richardson & Associates in 2022 for consultant work, according to Price’s financial disclosure forms.

In 2017, the district attorney’s office confirmed to The Times that the office was reviewing a complaint filed over Price’s two marriages.

That year, questions were raised about whether Price had divorced Green before marrying Richardson Price.

More than four decades ago, Price married Green in Annandale, Va. He sought a divorce in Los Angeles County Superior Court in 2006 and refiled the action in 2011. However, it wasn’t clear in 2017 whether the 2011 divorce had gone through.

At the time, a spokesperson for Price said the council member was under the impression that the divorce had occurred. A campaign spokesperson for Price said in 2017 that Price was married to Richardson Price.

Price’s marriage to Green was not dissolved until February 2018, and he did not legally marry Richardson Price until May 2018, according to the criminal complaint made public Tuesday, which references court record numbers for both the marriage and the divorce.

Richardson Price didn’t immediately respond to an email Tuesday from The Times about the charges against her husband.

The scandal-marred City Council had regained tenuous stability in recent months, but Price’s charges will probably upend that relative calm.

The immediate question will be whether Price, whose term is not set to expire until 2026, remains on the council as he fights the charges. He was first elected to the council in 2013 to represent neighborhoods in South Los Angeles and the area around downtown’s L.A. Live.

If suspended, Price would be unable to attend council and committee meetings, execute contracts, use discretionary funds or engage in constituent services. His constituents would also be left without a voting representative.

Price would permanently lose his seat if he is convicted of a felony under city rules.