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SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (AP) — A former county official in Southern California will admit he funneled bribes by means of his firm to a metropolis councilman in alternate for the councilman’s votes and affect within the metropolis’s hashish allowing course of, federal prosecutors stated.
Gabriel Chavez, a former San Bernardino County planning commissioner, has agreed to plead responsible to 1 depend of bribery, the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace stated.
The politician who solicited the bribes – former Baldwin Park Metropolis Councilmember Ricardo Pacheco – pleaded responsible in June 2021 to a federal bribery cost. Pacheco resigned from the council final 12 months and is awaiting sentencing.
After Baldwin Park started allowing authorized hashish outlets in 2017, Pacheco started to solicit bribes from marijuana companies searching for metropolis permits, in response to Chavez’s plea settlement.
Chavez agreed to behave as an middleman to funnel these bribes to Pacheco by utilizing his Claremont-based web advertising firm, Market Share Media Company, prosecutors stated.
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The pair agreed that Pacheco would get 60% of the businesses’ bribe cash whereas Chavez would hold the remainder as fee primarily for facilitating the bribes, in response to court docket paperwork.
Chavez stepped down from the San Bernardino County Planning Fee in November 2018 after the FBI executed a search warrant at his house.
Chavez is predicted to enter the responsible plea within the coming weeks. A federal bribery cost usually requires a most sentence of 10 years imprisonment.
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