Hot off the… Transom? THIS:
Melissa Fox’s Statement on the guilty plea of Melahat Rafiei
and Rafiei’s admission of trying to bribe officials in Irvine.
I first met Melahat Ratfiei in 2009 when she was Executive Director of the DPOC. I first had any relationship with her in 2010 when she was Beth Krom’s campaign manager for Krom’s run for Congress and I was running for Assembly, and then again when she was Shiva Farivar’s campaign manager in Farivar’s run for Irvine City Council. In 2018, Rafiei was employed by Patrick Strader and the developer FivePoint as a political consultant for the purpose of gaining Democratic approval for the “Strawberry Fields” option for an OC Veterans Cemetery, which I supported as a member of the Irvine City Council.
While Rafiei and I have been superficially friendly over the years, I believed she was often working surreptitiously against my political goals and beliefs, especially following her involvement in the political career of Farrah Khan. At no time during my career have I or any of my campaigns employed Rafiei or any of her companies, nor has she employed me for my legal services.
In May 2018 when I was on the Irvine City Council, Rafiei asked me to meet with her and a friend of hers who had a cannabis business headquartered in Irvine. While on council I often met with Irvine business owners and this meeting had no specific agenda and did not stand out as different from any other meeting of that type.
Several weeks before and independent of that meeting, Rafiei had asked me to perform legal work for her consulting firm. I informed her that under a city ordinance I was not legally permitted to represent any client before a governmental body anywhere in Orange County. Rafiei agreed that I would do no work impacting Irvine, and I quoted her my regular hourly fee and my regular retainer, and thereafter sent her a proposed retainer agreement. I never heard back from her regarding this proposed retainer agreement (which I kept on file and later provided to the FBI.)
Subsequently I learned from the FBI that she had shown this agreement with her client as indicia of an intended bribe to get me to introduce a cannabis ordinance in Irvine. I also learned from the FBI that she had told other clients that she needed money to bribe officials and then simply pocketed the money herself. Of course, I was shocked and very angry that she had used this proposed agreement for my legal services to involve me in any corrupt or illegal activity. From that point on I have been working with the FBI on this matter.
On Thursday January 19, 2023, I was happy to read the FBI’s announcement that Rafiei had agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge for attempting to defraud one of her political constituency firm’s clients and admitted in court documents that she tried to bribe two Irvine council members on cannabis-related matters. Later that evening I received a telephone call from the lead FBI agent in the case, thanking me for helping bring Rafiei to justice.
I supported Councilwoman Treseder’s call last night for a full and complete investigation into Melahat Rafiei’s activities and influence in Irvine. I would still be happy to help in any way I can, just as I did with the FBI investigation.
Melissa Fox
January 23, 2023.
UPDATE: Farrah Bites Back!
Last night – Tuesday night Jan. 24 – new Irvine Councilwoman Dr. Kathleen Treseder called for an investigation into Melahat’s activities and influence in Irvine, as Melissa mentioned above. Thanks to the scribing efforts of Jeremy Ficarola, we have the ambivalent and characteristically thin-skinned statement of Mayor Farrah Khan, Melahat’s most loyal politician:
Given the state of politics today, I shouldn’t be surprised by some of the comments that have been made. I am not Melahat Rafiei. There is no nexus between the allegations against her and for which she accepted responsibility in a plea deal with the FBI, and me or my office as major. Did she serve as my campaign manager? Yes she did. Just like she did for many many other. Including mayors that are now in Santa Ana and Anaheim.
I also know her as a complete human being. And so when we were made aware of what was going on with her and the FBI, I put out a statement and said you know what I’ll wait and see what the results of the investigation are. And as we progressed, I too let her go as my consultant. She was not my only consultant. I had multiple consultants as well. And so I fell back not only on my other consultants but also some former mayors who stepped in and assisted. It’s easy to play fast and loose with people’s lives and reputations.
But I want to be very careful with how we move forward. I too am interested to know who are those other two Councilmembers from 2018. Because as former Mayor Christina Shea stated, one of those three actually stated that they were interested in helping with the investigation which is totally unacceptable. And I too am interested in seeing what kind of work Melahat has been doing since then, she hasn’t been sitting in any of my meetings. She has not been my consultant. And if she has had communications with staff, it has been outside my work here. And I want to be very clear about that.
But I also want to be very clear about the whole idea of investigation. As some of you mentioned. We’ve had something like this before. And it was targeted at Councilmember Agran. We wasted a lot of money. We wasted a lot of time. They tried to diminish his reputation. And here he is again. The top vote getter in the last election. So facts are important. It’s important for us to seek justice and make sure there is no corruption. But more importantly, putting out false information and accusing people falsely is even more dangerous.
Some comments on the BOLD passages in paragraph 3: HOW EXACTLY IS IT “TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE” FOR MELISSA FOX TO HELP WITH THE INVESTIGATION INTO MELAHAT AND IRVINE? And from what throne can Queen Farrah proclaim such a thing?
Also we know that Farrah’s claim of no longer communicating with Mela The Hat is untrue, as we now have at least one e-mail from Farrah (using her official City e-mail) asking Melahat a question about a campaign survey (and Hello Julio!)
Let the SHOES KEEP DROPPING, like an ATMOSPHERIC RIVER OF SHOES!
Councilwoman Treseder is in deep water. Her call for an investigation was premature as she had not even considered outlining the scope of the proposed investigation and could not intelligently articulate the scope of her proposed investigation.
The more I watch Khan, Kim and now Treseder on the dais, I realize how underrepresented Irvine residents really are. The three of them come across as aloof or dinghy or both.
Kim is a complete joke. Often when she speaks, she picks and chooses words that often have no relation or relevance and mashes them together with a bunch of ummms, hair flicking and giggles. This is municipal governance not a Korean gameshow.
Mushroom girl should head to the forest.
Farrah is the best actress of the bunch. That’s the award the DPOC should give her at the next gala – best actress.
You seriously think that calling for an investigation is somewhat suspect if one can’t “intelligently articulate the scope”?
You know that Irvine has a City Staff, which is supposed to flesh out councilmembers proposals — right?
Wow.
“and admitted in court documents that she tried to bribe two Irvine council members on cannabis-related matters.”
Not quite accurate. According to Fox she was never approached for a bribe. That means only one – Lalloway. But even he may never have been approached. Guess we’ll find out.
Going by what Melahat said, the skinny-Gandolfini-looking libertarian Republican Lalloway was going for the price of eight Melissa’s… But we’ll see what he has to say.
She couldn’t sell it, because she didn’t know what she was selling.
Agran jumped all over her for her proposal being vague. The Irvine Watchdog describes it as vague.
It appeared more like she wanted to score points then roll up her sleeves and get to the details. She didn’t even have a cut off date as part of her investigation.Then, she suggested 30 days. 30
Days to investigate events in 2018 but not excluding other events through 2023. Huh???
It wasn’t just potential cost of investigation that was its undoing.
If you don’t understand what you are agreeing to, do you agree and then flesh out the terms. No.
https://irvinewatchdog.org/city-hall/irvine-city-council-votes-not-to-investigate-corruption-at-city-hall/
So when will we see some action to arrest arte moreno abd Harry sidhu ?
https://voiceofoc.org/2023/01/former-irvine-councilwoman-says-democratic-consultant-tried-defrauding-her-not-bribing/?amp
https://www.ocregister.com/2023/01/25/former-irvine-official-says-she-collaborated-with-fbi-in-melahat-rafieis-case/amp/
Yeah but either of those outlets give the Orange Juice Blog credit for having it first? Thought not ..
Vern.
I wasn’t playing whose first. Just supplementing this thread with matter which may be judicially noticed. I’m not sure your blog is subject to judicial notice.
And, Melissa’s initial statement was divulged by Christine Shea during public comments to the special meeting agenda item regarding Melahat. Special Meeting Agenda item 2.1.
Carry on.
They don’t scan the local blogs for priority. I get it it.
Still, Bushala used to claim the Ragister would pilfer his blog’s stories and slap a by-line on ’em. The excuse they gave was that they did their own independent “research” and so had no obligation to cite a lowly blog.
If Vern looks in our Drafts folder, he’ll see that I was onto this prospect before Melissa’s article came out. Work kept me from finishing the piece before it was moot.
OF COURSE it’s OK even if Melahat HAD given a $25K retainer with Melissa’s law office for work on behalf of her empire. That’s not a bribe (without much more.) That it was not a completed transaction, that Melahat used it to bilk money out of a donor, and that she then kept the money for herself anyway, all just make this a quintessential con job. (That besmirching Melissa might gratify Farrah is, perhaps, merely an immaterial bonus.)
($200K to Lalloway, though — that’s beyond looking to get a retainer from his firm — especially for a Democratic juicer/fixer.)
And that Melissa would favor such a proposal and be inclined to bring it forward is not surprising and does not mean that she was bribed to do so. The question is: who besides Lalloway was supposed to be the third vote? Shea? Seems unlikely. Schott? Ditto. So that would leave Wagner — and if Wagner going to vote for this, well — why are people ruling him out as a suspect, no matter WHAT anyone has said? It seems to me that $200,000 might have divided quite nicely between the two — if they were both going to vote the proposal that Melissa was going to introduce on its merits.
I’m not making any accusations here — I’m just saying that two lawyers ain’t enough to pass an ordinance … but three are, and then you don’t need to count on the vote of either conservative Republican woman.
I see that Fatso is rehashing back the Ol’ John Scott Horner thing in defense of MeleFAT.
Not to be missed too was the Julio Perez angle and Greg’s defense of his friend.
In other news, John Eastman was charged with misconduct today by California Bar.
Huh. If he’s disbarred, that means that he can’t work as a paralegal either, right?
Kev Abazajian is such a TOOL. Ada’s lil b*tch doing political tricks (like bolstering Tammy Kim who endorsed Farrah Khan’s reelection bid instead of condemn her for legitimizing genocide deniers – among other things – in exchange for a political favor that never materialized because Farrah defrauded her) for scraps.
What a tool.
OK — if you want to make this comment public, Eric, you can deal with any results.
Here you can watch the presiding Justice for the California court of appeal covering Riverside and San Bernardino counties coddle Eastman before judges and others as being a revered constitutional scholar. Cronyism right out in the open. A far away day for one Mr. Eastman. Btw, his bar number is higher than mine. Constitutional scholar goes down unceremoniously and In disgrace.
https://youtu.be/F9rp6lCzJp0
What is Julio Perez involvement?
It’s funny because convicted Santa Ana Councilman Carlos Bustamonte has been snatching up DTSA real estate with Julio in tow. I guess criminal history and party affiliation has no place with greed.
I’d like to see some proof of this Julio-Carlos connection before I print any more rumors about it.
But it is true apparently that Julio has been working with Melahat which is troubling to old Julio friends.