Attorneys Appealing SF Corruption Case Argue Grand Jury Excluded Black Citizens
Former SF Utilities Chief Harlan Kelly Is Appealing His 2023 Corruption Case
Former SFPUC Chief Harlan Kelly Sentenced to 4-Year Prison Term Following Fraud Conviction — Here Are 5 Takeaways
Mohammed Nuru to Plead Guilty in SF City Hall Corruption Probe, Admits Taking Bribes
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"content": "\u003cp>A central figure in the corruption scandal that rippled through San Francisco City Hall in 2020 is \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/12051475/former-sf-utilities-chief-harlan-kelly-is-appealing-his-2023-corruption-case\">seeking to overturn his guilty verdict\u003c/a> based on allegations that the federal grand jury that indicted him systematically underrepresented Black citizens.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attorneys for former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission general manager Harlan Kelly returned to the argument that Kelly’s team first raised in an appeal he lodged when he was indicted. In the case submitted to a panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday, his attorneys wrote that the court’s denial of his motion to throw out the indictment charging him with fraud “undermine[s] every aspect of the district court’s grand jury decision.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In 2021, Kelly — a Black man — was indicted by a federal grand jury,” his attorney, Steven Kalar, wrote in a brief to the court. “Not a single Black person sat on this grand jury. This fact is not surprising, because the venire [or jury pool] from which that grand jury was constituted suffered from dramatic underrepresentation of Black citizens.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalar also argued that the court allowed the government to introduce “improper” evidence during trial and made mistakes in the jury’s instructions that confused their deliberative process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Kelly was indicted on a bank fraud charge over allegations that he took bribes from permit expediter \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873494/sf-corruption-saga-continues-permit-expediter-walter-wong-to-repay-1-7-million\">Walter Wong\u003c/a>, who pleaded guilty and later testified against him. He was later accused of additional “honest services” fraud, and in a superseding indictment filed in 2022, he was charged with nine counts related to fraud in connection with the bribery scheme involving Wong and a separate accusation that he defrauded a loan company of more than $1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly is one of more than a dozen city officials and contractors who were embroiled in a wide-ranging corruption probe that became public in 2020 with the indictment of then-Public Works Director \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923588/disgraced-former-sf-public-works-chief-mohammed-nuru-sentenced-to-7-years-for-bribery-scheme\">Mohammed Nuru\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11955456\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11955456\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person in a suit and tie and carrying a backpack walks down a sidewalk.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Francisco public utilities chief Harlan Kelly walks out of the Philip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco on July 11, 2023, during his corruption trial this week. A jury convicted Kelly. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nuru and many of those implicated pleaded guilty, but Kelly maintained his innocence through a weekslong trial in 2023 and since \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955753/jury-convicts-top-sf-official-in-corruption-trial-here-are-5-takeaways\">his conviction\u003c/a> on six of the wire and bank fraud charges in 2024. He is serving a four-year prison term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, his appeal, which was first filed just days after his conviction last year, was submitted to the 9th Circuit, which said it would decide whether to overturn his conviction based on written briefs and the case’s existing record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what those briefs argue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an opening brief filed in December, Kalar — who was appointed as Kelly’s attorney six months earlier when Kelly could no longer afford representation — wrote that the court first erred when it dismissed Kelly’s appeal of his 2022 indictment.[aside postID=news_12051475 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2018/07/RS29855_COURTHOUSE_007-qut-1180x788.jpg']Kalar said that, through an independent statistician, Kelly provided evidence that the federal grand jury that indicted him was selected from a pool of citizens that systematically underrepresented Black people, violating the Sixth Amendment, Jury Selection and Service Act, and the 5th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Black citizens were underrepresented in this grand jury venire by a shocking 49% — three standard deviations away from the expected composition,” the brief said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal prosecutors disagreed, arguing that the court summoned 2,000 eligible grand jurors and followed its randomized protocols for selecting the panel that heard the government’s case. They said the court’s analysis found no legally significant underrepresentation of Black jury members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a comparative disparity test showed that there was some statistically significant underrepresentation of Black people in the grand jury pool, the prosecutors said it didn’t rise to the legal bar needed to qualify in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalar called the cases the government relied on to draw that legal line “inapposite or unpersuasive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12020020\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12020020\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2300/12/GettyImages-2174968250-e1736293413905.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco City Hall in November 2024. \u003ccite>(James Carter-Johnson/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In addition to his objection to the verdict as a whole, Kalar also made a more pointed argument for appealing Kelly’s convictions on two counts related to “honest services” fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalar argued that during trial, the court allowed the government to introduce improper evidence related to those charges, which were based on allegations that Kelly accepted bribes, including a lavish meal and a five-star hotel stay from Wong in exchange for helping his companies get a leg up on city contract proposals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite objections from Kelly’s attorneys ahead of trial, the court allowed prosecutors to show evidence of San Francisco’s ethics rules and regulations in court. Kalar wrote that this should not have been permitted, since honest services fraud “cannot be based on the violation of a city or state regulation.[aside postID=news_12051261 hero='https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2025/08/250303-AntiochPolice-13-BL_qed-1.jpg']“This error was compounded by instructional error,” he continued in the original appeal brief. “The court misadvised the jury on the permissible use of ‘ethics’ evidence, permitting the jury to improperly use that evidence to convict Kelly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The government’s lawyers responded that no actual evidence of the ethics laws — like Statements of Economic Interest and San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Declarations that Kelly submitted — were ever actually presented in court. Some former Public Utilities Commission workers who testified did speak to the Sunshine Ordinance and other ethics laws, but the government wrote that Kelly doesn’t seem to be objecting to anything said in testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also said that, according to the rules given to the jury in his original trial, they were only allowed to “use evidence of the defendant’s knowledge of, and compliance with city ethics rules in deciding whether the defendant knowingly violated his fiduciary duty as a public official,” not whether he committed honest services fraud more broadly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear when the three-judge panel reviewing Kelly’s case will decide whether to overturn all or part of his conviction. If the judges uphold his conviction, Kelly is expected to get out of prison in October 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is currently serving his term at the Federal Prison Camp in Duluth, Minnesota.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalar also argued that the court allowed the government to introduce “improper” evidence during trial and made mistakes in the jury’s instructions that confused their deliberative process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Kelly was indicted on a bank fraud charge over allegations that he took bribes from permit expediter \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873494/sf-corruption-saga-continues-permit-expediter-walter-wong-to-repay-1-7-million\">Walter Wong\u003c/a>, who pleaded guilty and later testified against him. He was later accused of additional “honest services” fraud, and in a superseding indictment filed in 2022, he was charged with nine counts related to fraud in connection with the bribery scheme involving Wong and a separate accusation that he defrauded a loan company of more than $1 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly is one of more than a dozen city officials and contractors who were embroiled in a wide-ranging corruption probe that became public in 2020 with the indictment of then-Public Works Director \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11923588/disgraced-former-sf-public-works-chief-mohammed-nuru-sentenced-to-7-years-for-bribery-scheme\">Mohammed Nuru\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11955456\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11955456\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A person in a suit and tie and carrying a backpack walks down a sidewalk.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Francisco public utilities chief Harlan Kelly walks out of the Philip Burton Federal Building in San Francisco on July 11, 2023, during his corruption trial this week. A jury convicted Kelly. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Nuru and many of those implicated pleaded guilty, but Kelly maintained his innocence through a weekslong trial in 2023 and since \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955753/jury-convicts-top-sf-official-in-corruption-trial-here-are-5-takeaways\">his conviction\u003c/a> on six of the wire and bank fraud charges in 2024. He is serving a four-year prison term.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This week, his appeal, which was first filed just days after his conviction last year, was submitted to the 9th Circuit, which said it would decide whether to overturn his conviction based on written briefs and the case’s existing record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here’s what those briefs argue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an opening brief filed in December, Kalar — who was appointed as Kelly’s attorney six months earlier when Kelly could no longer afford representation — wrote that the court first erred when it dismissed Kelly’s appeal of his 2022 indictment.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kalar said that, through an independent statistician, Kelly provided evidence that the federal grand jury that indicted him was selected from a pool of citizens that systematically underrepresented Black people, violating the Sixth Amendment, Jury Selection and Service Act, and the 5th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Black citizens were underrepresented in this grand jury venire by a shocking 49% — three standard deviations away from the expected composition,” the brief said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal prosecutors disagreed, arguing that the court summoned 2,000 eligible grand jurors and followed its randomized protocols for selecting the panel that heard the government’s case. They said the court’s analysis found no legally significant underrepresentation of Black jury members.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While a comparative disparity test showed that there was some statistically significant underrepresentation of Black people in the grand jury pool, the prosecutors said it didn’t rise to the legal bar needed to qualify in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalar called the cases the government relied on to draw that legal line “inapposite or unpersuasive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_12020020\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12020020\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2300/12/GettyImages-2174968250-e1736293413905.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San Francisco City Hall in November 2024. \u003ccite>(James Carter-Johnson/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In addition to his objection to the verdict as a whole, Kalar also made a more pointed argument for appealing Kelly’s convictions on two counts related to “honest services” fraud.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalar argued that during trial, the court allowed the government to introduce improper evidence related to those charges, which were based on allegations that Kelly accepted bribes, including a lavish meal and a five-star hotel stay from Wong in exchange for helping his companies get a leg up on city contract proposals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite objections from Kelly’s attorneys ahead of trial, the court allowed prosecutors to show evidence of San Francisco’s ethics rules and regulations in court. Kalar wrote that this should not have been permitted, since honest services fraud “cannot be based on the violation of a city or state regulation.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“This error was compounded by instructional error,” he continued in the original appeal brief. “The court misadvised the jury on the permissible use of ‘ethics’ evidence, permitting the jury to improperly use that evidence to convict Kelly.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The government’s lawyers responded that no actual evidence of the ethics laws — like Statements of Economic Interest and San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Declarations that Kelly submitted — were ever actually presented in court. Some former Public Utilities Commission workers who testified did speak to the Sunshine Ordinance and other ethics laws, but the government wrote that Kelly doesn’t seem to be objecting to anything said in testimony.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also said that, according to the rules given to the jury in his original trial, they were only allowed to “use evidence of the defendant’s knowledge of, and compliance with city ethics rules in deciding whether the defendant knowingly violated his fiduciary duty as a public official,” not whether he committed honest services fraud more broadly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear when the three-judge panel reviewing Kelly’s case will decide whether to overturn all or part of his conviction. If the judges uphold his conviction, Kelly is expected to get out of prison in October 2027.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is currently serving his term at the Federal Prison Camp in Duluth, Minnesota.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>The appeal case of one of the central figures in a sprawling \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> City Hall corruption scandal will be submitted Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly, the former chief of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, is seeking to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955753/jury-convicts-top-sf-official-in-corruption-trial-here-are-5-takeaways\">overturn his 2023 conviction\u003c/a> for various federal fraud and conspiracy crimes, which earned him four years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was charged as part of a bombshell FBI investigation that shook San Francisco politics in 2020. The federal probe became public after former Public Works director Mohammed Nuru was indicted on charges that he accepted bribes in exchange for advantages in winning city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the following years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859677/san-franciscos-unfolding-web-of-corruption-a-cartoon-interactive\">more than a dozen other city officials and contractors\u003c/a> were implicated in the scheme, including Sandra Zuniga, who previously led the Mayor’s Office Fix-It Team, and Tom Hui, the former director of the Department of Building Inspection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naomi Kelly, Harlan’s wife, also stepped down from her role as city administrator as a result of the scandal, though she did not face indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also at the center of the probe was political insider and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873494/sf-corruption-saga-continues-permit-expediter-walter-wong-to-repay-1-7-million\">construction contractor Walter Wong\u003c/a>, who owned multiple companies that vied for city contracts over decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11873533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11873533\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Walter Wong (right) and former Department of Building Inspection Director Tom Hui at a fundraiser in Chinatown in February 2017. \u003ccite>(Anonymous courtesy photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While many of the central figures in the scheme — including Wong and Nuru — pleaded guilty to charges brought by the federal government, Kelly has maintained his innocence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a three-week trial in 2023, federal prosecutors alleged that Wong began bribing Kelly as early as 2013 by doing heavily discounted home repairs for him, such as fixing water damage and installing wine cellar shelving in his house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also alleged Wong treated Kelly’s family to five-star hotel stays and a $600 meal on a lavish trip to China in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors showed a message Kelly sent to Wong saying, “I owe you big time!!!” after the wine cellar work, and alleged that Kelly repaid Wong by helping his companies secure roles in city projects.[aside postID=news_11955753 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS66889_230711-HarlanKelly-02-BL-KQED-1020x680.jpg']Kelly urged his staff to buy lights from one of Wong’s companies for downtown San Francisco’s holiday display one year and gave Wong insider information to give him a leg up on a proposal for a contract to swap city streetlights to LED bulbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During his testimony, Walter’s son, Washington Wong, admitted that his father’s company used information Kelly provided to tweak its proposals and give it better chances at winning contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Separately, prosecutors \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">accused Kelly\u003c/a> of conspiring with real estate investor Victor Makras to make false statements to obtain a $1.3 million loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was ultimately found guilty of six charges: one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, one count of honest services wire fraud, and four counts related to bank fraud. He was acquitted of two other honest services wire fraud charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2024, he was sentenced to four years in federal prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Days later, Kelly appealed the conviction, and on Monday, the case will be submitted to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based on briefs from federal prosecutors and his attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court was initially slated to hear oral arguments on Monday but announced in July that it would rule based on the briefs and existing record alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11893097\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit and tie stands behind a lectern with a projection screen on the wall behind him.\" width=\"1548\" height=\"1017\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000.jpg 1548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-800x526.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-1536x1009.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly on Jan. 31, 2014. \u003ccite>(Alex Emslie/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The court is of the unanimous opinion that the facts and legal arguments are adequately presented in the briefs and record and the decisional process would not be significantly aided by oral argument,” the document said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear what Kelly’s appeal strategy is. He is now represented by litigator Steven Kalar, who the court appointed in June 2024, after Kelly testified that he could no longer afford criminal defense attorney Brian Getz, who represented him in his original trial and submitted his appeal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalar declined KQED’s request for comment on the appeal on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Kelly’s original trial, Getz and his other attorney, Jonathan Baum, largely based their defense on discrediting Wong, whose testimony should therefore be treated with “greater caution” than other witnesses’ since he agreed to cooperate with the government in exchange for a lighter sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They argued that Wong and Kelly had a friendship — hence the gifts and dinners — and cast Wong as a calculated businessman looking for city officials to bribe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorneys also pointed out that Wong’s bribes to Kelly were different from those he gave to other city officials, like Nuru, which included envelopes of thousands of dollars in cash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The appeal case of one of the central figures in a sprawling \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/san-francisco\">San Francisco\u003c/a> City Hall corruption scandal will be submitted Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly, the former chief of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, is seeking to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11955753/jury-convicts-top-sf-official-in-corruption-trial-here-are-5-takeaways\">overturn his 2023 conviction\u003c/a> for various federal fraud and conspiracy crimes, which earned him four years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was charged as part of a bombshell FBI investigation that shook San Francisco politics in 2020. The federal probe became public after former Public Works director Mohammed Nuru was indicted on charges that he accepted bribes in exchange for advantages in winning city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the following years, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859677/san-franciscos-unfolding-web-of-corruption-a-cartoon-interactive\">more than a dozen other city officials and contractors\u003c/a> were implicated in the scheme, including Sandra Zuniga, who previously led the Mayor’s Office Fix-It Team, and Tom Hui, the former director of the Department of Building Inspection.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naomi Kelly, Harlan’s wife, also stepped down from her role as city administrator as a result of the scandal, though she did not face indictment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also at the center of the probe was political insider and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873494/sf-corruption-saga-continues-permit-expediter-walter-wong-to-repay-1-7-million\">construction contractor Walter Wong\u003c/a>, who owned multiple companies that vied for city contracts over decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11873533\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11873533\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1277\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-800x532.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-1020x678.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-160x106.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Walter Wong (right) and former Department of Building Inspection Director Tom Hui at a fundraiser in Chinatown in February 2017. \u003ccite>(Anonymous courtesy photo)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>While many of the central figures in the scheme — including Wong and Nuru — pleaded guilty to charges brought by the federal government, Kelly has maintained his innocence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a three-week trial in 2023, federal prosecutors alleged that Wong began bribing Kelly as early as 2013 by doing heavily discounted home repairs for him, such as fixing water damage and installing wine cellar shelving in his house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They also alleged Wong treated Kelly’s family to five-star hotel stays and a $600 meal on a lavish trip to China in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors showed a message Kelly sent to Wong saying, “I owe you big time!!!” after the wine cellar work, and alleged that Kelly repaid Wong by helping his companies secure roles in city projects.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kelly urged his staff to buy lights from one of Wong’s companies for downtown San Francisco’s holiday display one year and gave Wong insider information to give him a leg up on a proposal for a contract to swap city streetlights to LED bulbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During his testimony, Walter’s son, Washington Wong, admitted that his father’s company used information Kelly provided to tweak its proposals and give it better chances at winning contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Separately, prosecutors \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">accused Kelly\u003c/a> of conspiring with real estate investor Victor Makras to make false statements to obtain a $1.3 million loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was ultimately found guilty of six charges: one count of conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud, one count of honest services wire fraud, and four counts related to bank fraud. He was acquitted of two other honest services wire fraud charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In March 2024, he was sentenced to four years in federal prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Days later, Kelly appealed the conviction, and on Monday, the case will be submitted to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals based on briefs from federal prosecutors and his attorney.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The court was initially slated to hear oral arguments on Monday but announced in July that it would rule based on the briefs and existing record alone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11893097\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1548px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11893097\" src=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a suit and tie stands behind a lectern with a projection screen on the wall behind him.\" width=\"1548\" height=\"1017\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000.jpg 1548w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-800x526.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-1020x670.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-160x105.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/10/RS8504_Kelly-4-2000-1536x1009.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1548px) 100vw, 1548px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly on Jan. 31, 2014. \u003ccite>(Alex Emslie/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“The court is of the unanimous opinion that the facts and legal arguments are adequately presented in the briefs and record and the decisional process would not be significantly aided by oral argument,” the document said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s unclear what Kelly’s appeal strategy is. He is now represented by litigator Steven Kalar, who the court appointed in June 2024, after Kelly testified that he could no longer afford criminal defense attorney Brian Getz, who represented him in his original trial and submitted his appeal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kalar declined KQED’s request for comment on the appeal on Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During Kelly’s original trial, Getz and his other attorney, Jonathan Baum, largely based their defense on discrediting Wong, whose testimony should therefore be treated with “greater caution” than other witnesses’ since he agreed to cooperate with the government in exchange for a lighter sentence.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They argued that Wong and Kelly had a friendship — hence the gifts and dinners — and cast Wong as a calculated businessman looking for city officials to bribe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The attorneys also pointed out that Wong’s bribes to Kelly were different from those he gave to other city officials, like Nuru, which included envelopes of thousands of dollars in cash.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Former SFPUC Chief Harlan Kelly Sentenced to 4-Year Prison Term Following Fraud Conviction — Here Are 5 Takeaways",
"headTitle": "Former SFPUC Chief Harlan Kelly Sentenced to 4-Year Prison Term Following Fraud Conviction — Here Are 5 Takeaways | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Monday, March 18, 2024:\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Harlan Kelly, the former chief of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday, March 18, and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine after being found guilty last year of various federal fraud and conspiracy crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly “betrayed the public trust and made a mockery of his oath to serve the community in his high public office,” U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg said in court Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although federal prosecutors sought a 6 1/2 year prison sentence, Seeborg said Kelly had done enough for the community — as evidenced by the many letters of support sent on his behalf — to warrant a more lenient punishment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His sentencing is the latest development in the \u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859677/san-franciscos-unfolding-web-of-corruption-a-cartoon-interactive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link=\"native\">FBI’s expansive, six-year investigation\u003c/a> into city government corruption that has now ensnared more than a dozen individuals and two corporations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly is expected to begin serving his four-year prison term on June 19, and is ordered to serve three years of supervised release after that, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Original story, July 14, 2023\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>Yet another San Francisco city leader has been found guilty on charges related to bribery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After less than two days of deliberation, a San Francisco jury Friday convicted the former head of a powerful agency on six of eight charges stemming from a federal investigation into corruption in the city’s government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, was charged with wire fraud in 2020, charges that were later expanded to include bank fraud in late 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was accused of taking bribes for years from a construction contractor, Walter Wong, who sought to win a contract to update city streetlights. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">separate bank fraud charges\u003c/a> allege Kelly conspired with real estate investor Victor Makras to make false statements to Quicken Loans to obtain a $1.3 million loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg has yet to sentence Kelly, but the former SFPUC chief faces a possible 20 to 30 years on each count against him. Wong \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873494/sf-corruption-saga-continues-permit-expediter-walter-wong-to-repay-1-7-million\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> for his role in multiple alleged bribery schemes in 2021. Makras \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/jury-convicts-san-francisco-broker-and-investor-victor-makras-fraud-real-estate-loan#:~:text=The%20federal%20jury%20today%20convicted,in%20violation%20of%2018%20U.S.C.\">was convicted late last year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wide-ranging corruption scandal started in 2020 with a federal indictment of former San Francisco Public Works director Mohammed Nuru, who accepted bribes like a John Deere tractor, a $37,000 Rolex watch, and construction work on his Colusa County ranch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the corruption scandal didn’t stop at Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A slew of city officials and contractors have been ensnared in the corruption probe, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-director-san-francisco-mayor-s-office-neighborhood-services-and-san-francisco-s\">Mayor’s Office Fix-It team head Sandra Zuniga\u003c/a> and former Department of Building Inspection director \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">Tom Hui\u003c/a>. Former senior building inspector Bernie Curran also was convicted in a related corruption case, and was sentenced Friday to a year and one day in federal prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s wife, Naomi Kelly, did not face indictment, but stepped down from her role as city administrator after evidence against her husband implicated her, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most of the city leaders who found themselves under the FBI’s microscope pleaded guilty, Kelly fought his charges in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the three-week trial, a jury heard testimony and closing arguments from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Kelly’s defense attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are five key takeaways from the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wong didn’t just admit to bribing Kelly once. He spent years trying to influence him\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The owner of several construction companies, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/PROFILE-Walter-Wong-Powerhouse-pushes-2882045.php\">Wong was a politically-connected San Francisco insider\u003c/a> with ties to past mayoral admirations going as far back as Mayor Art Agnos. He used his largesse to help host banquets in Chinatown and bolster annual Lunar New Year parade celebrations. He also featured prominently in the case against Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors argued Wong’s attempts to influence Kelly started as early as 2013.\u003cbr>\nWong allegedly gifted home repair work to Kelly at a heavy discount, from installing iron hand-rails in his home to fixing water damage, and even installing wine-cellar shelving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I owe you big time!!!” Kelly wrote to Wong after the 2013 installation of the wine cellar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also spent lavishly on Kelly’s family during a 2016 China vacation, including a trip to a zoo, sightseeing tours, a meal between Wong and Kelly that topped $600, and freebie stays in five-star hotels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Kelly did pay Wong back, prosecutors argued, on two key projects he had control over: putting up holiday lights in San Francisco’s downtown, and a contract to convert existing city streetlights to use LED bulbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='Related Stories' tag='san-francisco-corruption']Kelly pushed his staffers to expedite the purchase of holiday lights from one of Wong’s companies, a claim prosecutors punctuated in court. Emails sent at the behest of Kelly egged on employees to hurry on the purchase. Kelly also allegedly handed Wong insider-information to help edge-out other contractors bidding to win the city streetlight contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In closing arguments to jurors on July 12, prosecutor Kristina Green, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said text messages tell the tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do you know Harlan Kelly was receiving gifts intended to influence city business? Because Harlan Kelly shows that link himself,” Green said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors then showed jurors a 2014 text message from Kelly to Wong, “My loan was approved. We need to get together to chat how to reimburse you and rfp (request for proposal). I should get the money in three weeks.” Essentially, in one message, prosecutors argued, Kelly both told Wong he would use a loan to pay him back for the discounted housework, while also saying he would share information about an RFP. That’s a request for proposal, essentially the guidelines the city would use for bidders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Importantly, that information is supposed to be confidential, so all companies bidding on a contract have an even playing field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong’s son, Washington Wong, who worked with him on those contracts, said on the witness stand, “we used that information to, I guess, tweak our next proposal [to the city].”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kelly’s defense attorney sought to sow doubt about Wong’s statements\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wong’s testimony was undoubtedly the biggest pillar of the U.S. attorneys’ arguments, which is likely why the defense had a laser focus on challenging his credibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s defense attorneys, Jonathan Baum and Brian Getz, cast the China trip and discounted home repair in a far rosier and more innocuous light, saying that Kelly and Wong enjoyed years of friendship that naturally resulted in exchanged gifts, dinners, and favorable treatment. At the same time, they described Wong as a shark on the hunt for new bribery marks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Was Harlan naive? He should’ve been more careful. He should’ve suspected what Walter was doing, but didn’t,” Baum told the jury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To punctuate his point, Baum flashed the dictionary definition of “naive” in large-font text on screens in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11873494 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/05/HuiAndWong-1020x678.jpg']Kelly’s lawyers also argued that Wong’s actual bribes to city officials – like Nuru – came in the form of thousands of dollars of cash stuffed into envelopes. If he were truly bribing Kelly, why not do that, instead of offering construction work on his home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That home construction work was also shoddy, and even over-charged, an expert witness brought by the defense said on the witness stand. While Wong tried to fix a water leak, photos showed water stains streaking Kelly’s Inner Sunset-home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this was a complex elaborate bribery scheme, would [Walter Wong] have done that?” Baum said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps most pointedly, however, the defense made sure to remind the jury that Wong stands to see his own bribery-related sentence reduced for cooperating as a witness, an idea they argued influences everything he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Seeborg instructed jurors to treat Wong’s testimony with “greater caution” than that of the other witnesses for that same reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Despite alleged bribes, Kelly’s influence didn’t always help Wong. But that doesn’t mean a crime wasn’t committed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors showed reams of evidence highlighting how Kelly inappropriately aided Wong in navigating an LED streetlight contract with the city. Kelly even went so far as to stuff confidential documents into a manila folder, later handing them to Wong out on the street, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that didn’t mean Wong had any luck winning his bid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When ranking companies who had thrown their hat in the ring for the city contract, Wong’s company ranked 47th out of 51 total bidders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can we say that was dead last?” Baum, the defense attorney, said. “The most important thing to think about is, what happened? [Prosecutors would] argue this information was very valuable. But what were the results?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even on the witness stand, Wong’s son, Washington Wong, admitted their attempts to game the system were fruitless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the grand scheme of things, no, it didn’t seem to help,” Washington Wong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in his instructions to the jury, Judge Seeborg reminded them that Kelly need only have agreed to commit an act to have acted corruptly. And Green, one of the prosecutors, underscored that to the jury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walter Wong didn’t win the LED lights contract. Under the law, that doesn’t matter,” she said. What matters is if jurors decide they corrupted the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kelly allegedly flouted the rules, but emails and text messages showed he knew the law\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kelly hoped to keep much of his communications with Wong and other co-conspirators outside of the spotlight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He wrote in a 2018 email “I’m not the only one who sees my email at work – I have some staff with access because I get a lot of emails and can’t be reading, and responding, to every one. Also emails sent to me are public record.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subsequently, many of his emailed communications with Wong are from Kelly’s personal Yahoo email. It’s a problem known to happen in the city writ large – \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11935973/i-am-somebody-who-enjoys-arguing-anonymoose-who-exposed-sf-city-hall-secrets-hangs-up-antlers\">citizen journalist “Anonymoose” found plenty of city officials trying to hide their communications\u003c/a> by skirting the city’s open records law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11935973 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/12/GettyImages-1302058535-1020x680.jpg']Kelly also, at one point, emailed a city ethics rulebook to his San Francisco Public Utilities Commission staff. That rulebook contained explanations of city regulations that bar gifts from contractors with bids before the commission, much like Wong did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors asked Mary Tienken, a project manager at the SFPUC, to take the witness stand in June. She wrote many of the bidding documents that – unbeknownst to her – Kelly eventually passed to Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about her duty under the law, Tienken said, “I was obligated not to provide any advantage to any bidders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The city is as connected as can be\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Testimony and documents submitted for evidence during the trial revealed guest-star appearances from various city politicos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2016 trip to China where Wong allegedly bribed Kelly included a visit to an ailing Rose Pak, a well-known Chinatown community leader, who was hospitalized, and later died after returning to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rose Pak was a friend of the family. I met her and she became a friend,” Maria Little, Kelly’s mother-in-law, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly and Makras also dined with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11899657/mohammed-nuru-to-plead-guilty-in-city-hall-corruption-probe\">Mohammed Nuru, the former Public Works director who pleaded guilty to bribery charges in 2021\u003c/a>. And Wong and Kelly planned a dinner with the late Mayor Ed Lee by writing their text messages in code, referring to Lee \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Former-S-F-Mayor-Ed-Lee-code-name-35-15777827.php\">only as “35”\u003c/a> — his initials on a phone keypad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s not a surprise that these folks \u003ca href=\"https://sfist.com/2021/10/20/real-estate-magnate-victor-makras-the-latest-to-indicted-by-feds-in-sf-public-corruption-probe/\">would rub shoulders with other city leaders\u003c/a>, the extent to which others have been mentioned in FBI documents, and the court record, has fueled \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2021/11/web-of-corruption-explore-the-cronyism-lies-and-federal-crimes-at-the-heart-of-san-franciscos-government/\">speculation\u003c/a> as to who in city government, if anyone, was also under federal investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conviction is a milestone in San Francisco political history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With no other major indictments pending, Kelly’s conviction may snip the final thread in the tapestry of the San Francisco corruption scandal that has ensnared so many, giving a glimpse into a system of influence many have heard whispers of, but few had seen before in such full view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Kelly is the latest San Francisco official to land in prison after being found guilty of charges related to bribery, as part of an expansive, six-year federal investigation into city government corruption. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update, Monday, March 18, 2024:\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>Harlan Kelly, the former chief of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, was sentenced to four years in prison on Monday, March 18, and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine after being found guilty last year of various federal fraud and conspiracy crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly “betrayed the public trust and made a mockery of his oath to serve the community in his high public office,” U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg said in court Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although federal prosecutors sought a 6 1/2 year prison sentence, Seeborg said Kelly had done enough for the community — as evidenced by the many letters of support sent on his behalf — to warrant a more lenient punishment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His sentencing is the latest development in the \u003ca class=\"\" href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11859677/san-franciscos-unfolding-web-of-corruption-a-cartoon-interactive\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-link=\"native\">FBI’s expansive, six-year investigation\u003c/a> into city government corruption that has now ensnared more than a dozen individuals and two corporations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly is expected to begin serving his four-year prison term on June 19, and is ordered to serve three years of supervised release after that, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Original story, July 14, 2023\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>Yet another San Francisco city leader has been found guilty on charges related to bribery.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After less than two days of deliberation, a San Francisco jury Friday convicted the former head of a powerful agency on six of eight charges stemming from a federal investigation into corruption in the city’s government.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, was charged with wire fraud in 2020, charges that were later expanded to include bank fraud in late 2021.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was accused of taking bribes for years from a construction contractor, Walter Wong, who sought to win a contract to update city streetlights. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">separate bank fraud charges\u003c/a> allege Kelly conspired with real estate investor Victor Makras to make false statements to Quicken Loans to obtain a $1.3 million loan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chief U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg has yet to sentence Kelly, but the former SFPUC chief faces a possible 20 to 30 years on each count against him. Wong \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11873494/sf-corruption-saga-continues-permit-expediter-walter-wong-to-repay-1-7-million\">pleaded guilty\u003c/a> for his role in multiple alleged bribery schemes in 2021. Makras \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/jury-convicts-san-francisco-broker-and-investor-victor-makras-fraud-real-estate-loan#:~:text=The%20federal%20jury%20today%20convicted,in%20violation%20of%2018%20U.S.C.\">was convicted late last year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The wide-ranging corruption scandal started in 2020 with a federal indictment of former San Francisco Public Works director Mohammed Nuru, who accepted bribes like a John Deere tractor, a $37,000 Rolex watch, and construction work on his Colusa County ranch.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the corruption scandal didn’t stop at Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A slew of city officials and contractors have been ensnared in the corruption probe, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/former-director-san-francisco-mayor-s-office-neighborhood-services-and-san-francisco-s\">Mayor’s Office Fix-It team head Sandra Zuniga\u003c/a> and former Department of Building Inspection director \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">Tom Hui\u003c/a>. Former senior building inspector Bernie Curran also was convicted in a related corruption case, and was sentenced Friday to a year and one day in federal prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s wife, Naomi Kelly, did not face indictment, but stepped down from her role as city administrator after evidence against her husband implicated her, as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While most of the city leaders who found themselves under the FBI’s microscope pleaded guilty, Kelly fought his charges in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the three-week trial, a jury heard testimony and closing arguments from the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Kelly’s defense attorneys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Here are five key takeaways from the trial.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Wong didn’t just admit to bribing Kelly once. He spent years trying to influence him\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The owner of several construction companies, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/PROFILE-Walter-Wong-Powerhouse-pushes-2882045.php\">Wong was a politically-connected San Francisco insider\u003c/a> with ties to past mayoral admirations going as far back as Mayor Art Agnos. He used his largesse to help host banquets in Chinatown and bolster annual Lunar New Year parade celebrations. He also featured prominently in the case against Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors argued Wong’s attempts to influence Kelly started as early as 2013.\u003cbr>\nWong allegedly gifted home repair work to Kelly at a heavy discount, from installing iron hand-rails in his home to fixing water damage, and even installing wine-cellar shelving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I owe you big time!!!” Kelly wrote to Wong after the 2013 installation of the wine cellar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also spent lavishly on Kelly’s family during a 2016 China vacation, including a trip to a zoo, sightseeing tours, a meal between Wong and Kelly that topped $600, and freebie stays in five-star hotels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Kelly did pay Wong back, prosecutors argued, on two key projects he had control over: putting up holiday lights in San Francisco’s downtown, and a contract to convert existing city streetlights to use LED bulbs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kelly pushed his staffers to expedite the purchase of holiday lights from one of Wong’s companies, a claim prosecutors punctuated in court. Emails sent at the behest of Kelly egged on employees to hurry on the purchase. Kelly also allegedly handed Wong insider-information to help edge-out other contractors bidding to win the city streetlight contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In closing arguments to jurors on July 12, prosecutor Kristina Green, from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, said text messages tell the tale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“How do you know Harlan Kelly was receiving gifts intended to influence city business? Because Harlan Kelly shows that link himself,” Green said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors then showed jurors a 2014 text message from Kelly to Wong, “My loan was approved. We need to get together to chat how to reimburse you and rfp (request for proposal). I should get the money in three weeks.” Essentially, in one message, prosecutors argued, Kelly both told Wong he would use a loan to pay him back for the discounted housework, while also saying he would share information about an RFP. That’s a request for proposal, essentially the guidelines the city would use for bidders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Importantly, that information is supposed to be confidential, so all companies bidding on a contract have an even playing field.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong’s son, Washington Wong, who worked with him on those contracts, said on the witness stand, “we used that information to, I guess, tweak our next proposal [to the city].”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kelly’s defense attorney sought to sow doubt about Wong’s statements\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Wong’s testimony was undoubtedly the biggest pillar of the U.S. attorneys’ arguments, which is likely why the defense had a laser focus on challenging his credibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s defense attorneys, Jonathan Baum and Brian Getz, cast the China trip and discounted home repair in a far rosier and more innocuous light, saying that Kelly and Wong enjoyed years of friendship that naturally resulted in exchanged gifts, dinners, and favorable treatment. At the same time, they described Wong as a shark on the hunt for new bribery marks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Was Harlan naive? He should’ve been more careful. He should’ve suspected what Walter was doing, but didn’t,” Baum told the jury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To punctuate his point, Baum flashed the dictionary definition of “naive” in large-font text on screens in court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kelly’s lawyers also argued that Wong’s actual bribes to city officials – like Nuru – came in the form of thousands of dollars of cash stuffed into envelopes. If he were truly bribing Kelly, why not do that, instead of offering construction work on his home?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That home construction work was also shoddy, and even over-charged, an expert witness brought by the defense said on the witness stand. While Wong tried to fix a water leak, photos showed water stains streaking Kelly’s Inner Sunset-home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If this was a complex elaborate bribery scheme, would [Walter Wong] have done that?” Baum said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps most pointedly, however, the defense made sure to remind the jury that Wong stands to see his own bribery-related sentence reduced for cooperating as a witness, an idea they argued influences everything he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Judge Seeborg instructed jurors to treat Wong’s testimony with “greater caution” than that of the other witnesses for that same reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Despite alleged bribes, Kelly’s influence didn’t always help Wong. But that doesn’t mean a crime wasn’t committed\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors showed reams of evidence highlighting how Kelly inappropriately aided Wong in navigating an LED streetlight contract with the city. Kelly even went so far as to stuff confidential documents into a manila folder, later handing them to Wong out on the street, they said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that didn’t mean Wong had any luck winning his bid.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When ranking companies who had thrown their hat in the ring for the city contract, Wong’s company ranked 47th out of 51 total bidders.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Can we say that was dead last?” Baum, the defense attorney, said. “The most important thing to think about is, what happened? [Prosecutors would] argue this information was very valuable. But what were the results?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even on the witness stand, Wong’s son, Washington Wong, admitted their attempts to game the system were fruitless.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the grand scheme of things, no, it didn’t seem to help,” Washington Wong said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in his instructions to the jury, Judge Seeborg reminded them that Kelly need only have agreed to commit an act to have acted corruptly. And Green, one of the prosecutors, underscored that to the jury.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Walter Wong didn’t win the LED lights contract. Under the law, that doesn’t matter,” she said. What matters is if jurors decide they corrupted the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Kelly allegedly flouted the rules, but emails and text messages showed he knew the law\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Kelly hoped to keep much of his communications with Wong and other co-conspirators outside of the spotlight.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He wrote in a 2018 email “I’m not the only one who sees my email at work – I have some staff with access because I get a lot of emails and can’t be reading, and responding, to every one. Also emails sent to me are public record.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Subsequently, many of his emailed communications with Wong are from Kelly’s personal Yahoo email. It’s a problem known to happen in the city writ large – \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11935973/i-am-somebody-who-enjoys-arguing-anonymoose-who-exposed-sf-city-hall-secrets-hangs-up-antlers\">citizen journalist “Anonymoose” found plenty of city officials trying to hide their communications\u003c/a> by skirting the city’s open records law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kelly also, at one point, emailed a city ethics rulebook to his San Francisco Public Utilities Commission staff. That rulebook contained explanations of city regulations that bar gifts from contractors with bids before the commission, much like Wong did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Prosecutors asked Mary Tienken, a project manager at the SFPUC, to take the witness stand in June. She wrote many of the bidding documents that – unbeknownst to her – Kelly eventually passed to Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about her duty under the law, Tienken said, “I was obligated not to provide any advantage to any bidders.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>The city is as connected as can be\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Testimony and documents submitted for evidence during the trial revealed guest-star appearances from various city politicos.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2016 trip to China where Wong allegedly bribed Kelly included a visit to an ailing Rose Pak, a well-known Chinatown community leader, who was hospitalized, and later died after returning to San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rose Pak was a friend of the family. I met her and she became a friend,” Maria Little, Kelly’s mother-in-law, said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly and Makras also dined with \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11899657/mohammed-nuru-to-plead-guilty-in-city-hall-corruption-probe\">Mohammed Nuru, the former Public Works director who pleaded guilty to bribery charges in 2021\u003c/a>. And Wong and Kelly planned a dinner with the late Mayor Ed Lee by writing their text messages in code, referring to Lee \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/Former-S-F-Mayor-Ed-Lee-code-name-35-15777827.php\">only as “35”\u003c/a> — his initials on a phone keypad.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While it’s not a surprise that these folks \u003ca href=\"https://sfist.com/2021/10/20/real-estate-magnate-victor-makras-the-latest-to-indicted-by-feds-in-sf-public-corruption-probe/\">would rub shoulders with other city leaders\u003c/a>, the extent to which others have been mentioned in FBI documents, and the court record, has fueled \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2021/11/web-of-corruption-explore-the-cronyism-lies-and-federal-crimes-at-the-heart-of-san-franciscos-government/\">speculation\u003c/a> as to who in city government, if anyone, was also under federal investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The conviction is a milestone in San Francisco political history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With no other major indictments pending, Kelly’s conviction may snip the final thread in the tapestry of the San Francisco corruption scandal that has ensnared so many, giving a glimpse into a system of influence many have heard whispers of, but few had seen before in such full view.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Mohammed Nuru, the former director of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works, agreed Friday to plead guilty to wire fraud in a federal investigation into public corruption at City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">who was arrested in January 2020 and lost his job\u003c/a>, faces up to nine years in prison as part of the plea agreement announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds — although a judge could sentence him to up to 20 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the plea agreement, filed in U.S. District Court, prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges against him, including money laundering and lying to the FBI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is next scheduled in court on Jan. 14 to formally enter the plea and, in the meantime, remains out of custody on a $2 million bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label ='More Coverage on the Nuru Scandal' tag='mohammed-nuru']As part of the plea agreement, Nuru, 59, admitted to widespread corruption, including taking bribes from developers, a restaurant owner and the city’s garbage company, Recology, as part of what prosecutors called “a long-running scheme involving multiple bribes and kickbacks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For years, Nuru held a powerful and well-paid public leadership position at San Francisco City Hall, but instead of serving the public, Nuru served himself,” Hinds said, calling the degree of corruption “staggering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He took continuous bribes from the contractors, developers and entities he regulated,” she added. “He now faces a prison sentence for enriching himself at the expense of the public as he sat in high office.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru admits in the plea agreement to a litany of transgressions, in which he offered city contractors and developers preferential treatment in exchange for cash, jewelry, international trips and a slew of other goods and favors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mohammed is ready to accept responsibility in this matter and begin to put it behind him,” his attorney Ismail Ramsey said in a statement. “He has learned a lot from his past mistakes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru’s guilty plea does not mark the end of the long-running investigation into public corruption in San Francisco, federal authorities said in a statement released Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will persist in our commitment to protect the integrity of the institutions that serve the people of San Francisco,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twelve people have been charged in the City Hall corruption probe that began in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than two months after Nuru’s arrest, Tom Hui, former director of the Department of Building Inspection, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">faced allegations of breaching ethics laws\u003c/a> by the City Attorney’s Office and resigned before being dismissed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last November, Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the city’s Public Utilities Commission, faced similar charges, and stepped down from his position. He has since \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-City-Hall-scandal-Harlan-Kelly-pleads-not-16549329.php\">pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges\u003c/a>. His wife, Naomi Kelly, similarly abandoned her post as city administrator after being implicated in the charges against her husband, despite not being charged herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11859677 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/SF_corruption_BG_featured001.png']The scandal has also brought down former Recology executive Paul Giusti, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11882955/sf-corruption-saga-continues-trash-company-official-to-plead-guilty-to-bribing-city-official\">who was charged last November with bribing Nuru\u003c/a>, as well as for money laundering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At roughly the same time that Giusti was allegedly handing bribes to Nuru in 2017, Recology’s service rates were going up. In March 2020, the City Attorney’s Office announced that the garbage company had overcharged rate payers by $94.5 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a settlement city officials reached with Recology, the garbage company has since agreed to pay back some $95 million to the roughly 160,000 San Francisco ratepayers affected by the improper increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from Bay City News and KQED’s Alex Emslie and Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Mohammed Nuru, the former director of San Francisco’s Department of Public Works, agreed Friday to plead guilty to wire fraud in a federal investigation into public corruption at City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">who was arrested in January 2020 and lost his job\u003c/a>, faces up to nine years in prison as part of the plea agreement announced by Acting U.S. Attorney Stephanie Hinds — although a judge could sentence him to up to 20 years and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of the plea agreement, filed in U.S. District Court, prosecutors agreed to drop additional charges against him, including money laundering and lying to the FBI.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He is next scheduled in court on Jan. 14 to formally enter the plea and, in the meantime, remains out of custody on a $2 million bond.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As part of the plea agreement, Nuru, 59, admitted to widespread corruption, including taking bribes from developers, a restaurant owner and the city’s garbage company, Recology, as part of what prosecutors called “a long-running scheme involving multiple bribes and kickbacks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“For years, Nuru held a powerful and well-paid public leadership position at San Francisco City Hall, but instead of serving the public, Nuru served himself,” Hinds said, calling the degree of corruption “staggering.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“He took continuous bribes from the contractors, developers and entities he regulated,” she added. “He now faces a prison sentence for enriching himself at the expense of the public as he sat in high office.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru admits in the plea agreement to a litany of transgressions, in which he offered city contractors and developers preferential treatment in exchange for cash, jewelry, international trips and a slew of other goods and favors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mohammed is ready to accept responsibility in this matter and begin to put it behind him,” his attorney Ismail Ramsey said in a statement. “He has learned a lot from his past mistakes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nuru’s guilty plea does not mark the end of the long-running investigation into public corruption in San Francisco, federal authorities said in a statement released Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We will persist in our commitment to protect the integrity of the institutions that serve the people of San Francisco,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Twelve people have been charged in the City Hall corruption probe that began in 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than two months after Nuru’s arrest, Tom Hui, former director of the Department of Building Inspection, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">faced allegations of breaching ethics laws\u003c/a> by the City Attorney’s Office and resigned before being dismissed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last November, Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the city’s Public Utilities Commission, faced similar charges, and stepped down from his position. He has since \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/S-F-City-Hall-scandal-Harlan-Kelly-pleads-not-16549329.php\">pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges\u003c/a>. His wife, Naomi Kelly, similarly abandoned her post as city administrator after being implicated in the charges against her husband, despite not being charged herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The scandal has also brought down former Recology executive Paul Giusti, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11882955/sf-corruption-saga-continues-trash-company-official-to-plead-guilty-to-bribing-city-official\">who was charged last November with bribing Nuru\u003c/a>, as well as for money laundering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At roughly the same time that Giusti was allegedly handing bribes to Nuru in 2017, Recology’s service rates were going up. In March 2020, the City Attorney’s Office announced that the garbage company had overcharged rate payers by $94.5 million.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a settlement city officials reached with Recology, the garbage company has since agreed to pay back some $95 million to the roughly 160,000 San Francisco ratepayers affected by the improper increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This post includes reporting from Bay City News and KQED’s Alex Emslie and Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:00 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco real estate investor Victor Makras pleaded not guilty in federal court on Thursday to two bank fraud charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The charges were unveiled by the U.S. Department of Justice last month against Makras and Harlan Kelly, the former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission general manager, who similarly pleaded not guilty two weeks ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison or a $1 million fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly and Makras are accused of defrauding Quicken Loans by inflating the amount of money Kelly owed on his mortgage and lying about his level of debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Makras’s next court date is scheduled for Dec. 16, the same day Kelly is set to appear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley\u003cbr>\nalso placed travel restrictions on Makras, who must now obtain permission to leave the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post, Oct. 20\u003c/strong>: Harlan Kelly, a former general manager of San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission already accused of accepting bribes from a city contractor, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">new bank fraud charges\u003c/a> leveled against him by federal prosecutors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was charged Tuesday with two new counts — bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud — alongside local real estate investor and former city commissioner Victor Makras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the indictment, Kelly and Makras defrauded Quicken Loans by inflating the amount of money Kelly owed on his mortgage — to qualify for a lower-interest refinance loan. The complaint also alleges that Kelly and Makras lied to the lender about debt owed by Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The indictments are part of a wide-ranging public corruption investigation that has led to charges against 12 people and the resignation or ousting of four city department heads, including Kelly and Kelly’s wife, former City Administrator Naomi Kelly. Naomi Kelly has not been charged with any crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First charged last year was Mohammed Nuru, the longtime director of San Francisco Public Works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">Nuru was arrested in January 2020.\u003c/a> Federal prosecutors have \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-trash-company-executive-charged-bribing-company-s-chief-san-francisco\">accused him of taking more than $1 million\u003c/a> in bribes from people doing business with the city, and of attempting, unsuccessfully, to bribe a San Francisco airport commissioner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849113/u-s-attorney-charges-san-francisco-department-head-with-fraud-in-connection-to-bribery-scheme\">Kelly was arrested in November 2020\u003c/a> and stepped down from his role as head of the city’s PUC. The U.S. attorney’s office charged him with five counts related to an alleged bribery scheme, saying he accepted thousands of dollars in international trips, meals and other gifts from city contractor Walter Wong, in exchange for providing Wong with information meant to help him win a multimillion-dollar contract from the SFPUC for a citywide LED lighting contract. Wong’s son was bidding on the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong, who is cooperating with federal investigators, is identified only as “Contractor #1” in court documents. In a statement this week, the U.S. attorney’s office wrote that the indictment against Kelly alleges “that Kelly provided confidential internal PUC documents and information to Contractor #1 to give Contractor #1 competitive advantages during public contract bidding competitions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11871191,news_11849113,news_11859677\" label=\"Related Coverage\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In exchange,” the statement continues, “Contractor #1 lavished Kelly with personal financial benefits, including discounted construction work on Kelly’s residence and an international vacation for Kelly and his family that included Contractor #1 paying for hotel charges, hundreds of dollars for meals, and jewelry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest charges stem from a complicated financial scheme federal prosecutors are accusing Kelly and Makras of conducting, to conceal the Kellys’ debt to secure a more favorable loan from Quicken Loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint states that Kelly first took out a $715,000 loan in 2012 from Makras’s real estate company, Makras Investors, to pay for a home remodel — which was being done by Wong. Then, in 2013, Kelly allegedly asked Makras for a personal loan of $70,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the indictment, Makras then texted Kelly:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After thinking about it a bit, I recommend that I pay your credit cards directly. This will avoid a large check going into your account, Then needing to explain it to the bank. Banks do not like seeing anything unusual about the flow of cash in and out of checking savings accounts. This will make the loan process go easy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Makras then allegedly paid off $70,000 in credit card debt owed by the Kellys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The indictment goes on to allege that Makras and Kelly inflated the amount of the Makras Investors loan to secure a lower interest rate on a home refinance from Quicken Loans. That $1.3 million loan was used to pay off the Makras Investors loan as well as the Kellys’ first mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal prosecutors say Makras then paid Wong for the nearly $90,000 worth of construction work on the Kelly home conducted between 2013 and 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If convicted of all seven counts, Kelly could face more than 160 years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED’s Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Harlan Kelly was charged on Oct. 20 with bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud. Two weeks later, on Nov. 4, local real estate investor and former city commissioner Victor Makras was similarly charged. Both men pleaded not guilty. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>Updated 3:00 p.m. Thursday\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco real estate investor Victor Makras pleaded not guilty in federal court on Thursday to two bank fraud charges.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The charges were unveiled by the U.S. Department of Justice last month against Makras and Harlan Kelly, the former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission general manager, who similarly pleaded not guilty two weeks ago.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Each charge carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison or a $1 million fine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly and Makras are accused of defrauding Quicken Loans by inflating the amount of money Kelly owed on his mortgage and lying about his level of debt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Makras’s next court date is scheduled for Dec. 16, the same day Kelly is set to appear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the hearing, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley\u003cbr>\nalso placed travel restrictions on Makras, who must now obtain permission to leave the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Original post, Oct. 20\u003c/strong>: Harlan Kelly, a former general manager of San Francisco’s Public Utilities Commission already accused of accepting bribes from a city contractor, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/federal-charges-against-former-san-francisco-puc-general-manager-expanded-include-bank\">new bank fraud charges\u003c/a> leveled against him by federal prosecutors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly was charged Tuesday with two new counts — bank fraud and conspiracy to commit bank fraud — alongside local real estate investor and former city commissioner Victor Makras.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the indictment, Kelly and Makras defrauded Quicken Loans by inflating the amount of money Kelly owed on his mortgage — to qualify for a lower-interest refinance loan. The complaint also alleges that Kelly and Makras lied to the lender about debt owed by Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The indictments are part of a wide-ranging public corruption investigation that has led to charges against 12 people and the resignation or ousting of four city department heads, including Kelly and Kelly’s wife, former City Administrator Naomi Kelly. Naomi Kelly has not been charged with any crimes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First charged last year was Mohammed Nuru, the longtime director of San Francisco Public Works.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">Nuru was arrested in January 2020.\u003c/a> Federal prosecutors have \u003ca href=\"https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndca/pr/san-francisco-trash-company-executive-charged-bribing-company-s-chief-san-francisco\">accused him of taking more than $1 million\u003c/a> in bribes from people doing business with the city, and of attempting, unsuccessfully, to bribe a San Francisco airport commissioner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849113/u-s-attorney-charges-san-francisco-department-head-with-fraud-in-connection-to-bribery-scheme\">Kelly was arrested in November 2020\u003c/a> and stepped down from his role as head of the city’s PUC. The U.S. attorney’s office charged him with five counts related to an alleged bribery scheme, saying he accepted thousands of dollars in international trips, meals and other gifts from city contractor Walter Wong, in exchange for providing Wong with information meant to help him win a multimillion-dollar contract from the SFPUC for a citywide LED lighting contract. Wong’s son was bidding on the contract.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong, who is cooperating with federal investigators, is identified only as “Contractor #1” in court documents. In a statement this week, the U.S. attorney’s office wrote that the indictment against Kelly alleges “that Kelly provided confidential internal PUC documents and information to Contractor #1 to give Contractor #1 competitive advantages during public contract bidding competitions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In exchange,” the statement continues, “Contractor #1 lavished Kelly with personal financial benefits, including discounted construction work on Kelly’s residence and an international vacation for Kelly and his family that included Contractor #1 paying for hotel charges, hundreds of dollars for meals, and jewelry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The latest charges stem from a complicated financial scheme federal prosecutors are accusing Kelly and Makras of conducting, to conceal the Kellys’ debt to secure a more favorable loan from Quicken Loans.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complaint states that Kelly first took out a $715,000 loan in 2012 from Makras’s real estate company, Makras Investors, to pay for a home remodel — which was being done by Wong. Then, in 2013, Kelly allegedly asked Makras for a personal loan of $70,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to the indictment, Makras then texted Kelly:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“After thinking about it a bit, I recommend that I pay your credit cards directly. This will avoid a large check going into your account, Then needing to explain it to the bank. Banks do not like seeing anything unusual about the flow of cash in and out of checking savings accounts. This will make the loan process go easy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Makras then allegedly paid off $70,000 in credit card debt owed by the Kellys.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The indictment goes on to allege that Makras and Kelly inflated the amount of the Makras Investors loan to secure a lower interest rate on a home refinance from Quicken Loans. That $1.3 million loan was used to pay off the Makras Investors loan as well as the Kellys’ first mortgage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal prosecutors say Makras then paid Wong for the nearly $90,000 worth of construction work on the Kelly home conducted between 2013 and 2014.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If convicted of all seven counts, Kelly could face more than 160 years in prison.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>KQED’s Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "SF City Attorney Dennis Herrera Tapped to Take Over Scandal-Laden Public Utilities Commission That He Investigated",
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"content": "\u003cp>Over the past year, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has rooted out wrongdoing in an expansive, still unfolding city corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Herrera has been tapped to lead one of the agencies at the center of that scandal — the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission — a move announced Monday by Mayor London Breed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As head of the city's water and power agency, Herrera would be tasked with reducing San Francisco's dependency on PG&E, California's largest utility, which has itself drawn heavy scrutiny in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move would also leave an empty seat at the helm of the City Attorney's Office, leading to a potential power shuffle in city government. Those rumored to be vying for the seat include two sitting supervisors, the head of the local Democratic Party and a state assemblymember.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/LondonBreed/status/1386728480360988674\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While some of those rumored to be potential candidates denied a run outright, former city supervisors David Campos and Jane Kim, and current Assemblymember David Chiu, D-San Francisco, both responded to inquiries with statements that left the door open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If recommended by the SFPUC, Herrera would assume the general manager position previously held by Harlan Kelly, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849113/u-s-attorney-charges-san-francisco-department-head-with-fraud-in-connection-to-bribery-scheme\">who stepped down in November after being charged\u003c/a> by the U.S. attorney's office in the city's sprawling corruption scandal. Attorneys alleged Kelly accepted dinners and a lavish trip to China paid for by a city permitting agent — who has since pleaded guilty — in exchange for favorable treatment securing contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As head of the agency, Herrera told KQED he'd be ready to clean house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"related coverage\" tag=\"san-francisco-corruption\"]\"There's obviously been a void of leadership at the Public Utilities Commission,\" he said. \"And the mayor and I, in the course of our discussions about the executive leadership of that agency, each came to the conclusion that putting the city's top watchdog in that position would do a great deal to help restore the legacy and the reputation of that agency and at the same time demonstrate our city's commitment to bringing affordable public power to San Francisco.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Breed said she's \"proud\" to nominate Herrera for the role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Dennis has been a great champion in San Francisco across a wide range of issues,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera was initially elected as city attorney in 2001, the first Latino to ever hold that office, and has been subsequently reelected five times. His office played a key role in the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark gay marriage equality case and staunchly defended San Francisco's status as a sanctuary city against relentless attacks by the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it's Herrera's pivotal work investigating City Hall corruption that has some officials concerned about the prospect of him switching roles now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents parts of the South of Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods, said he's worried Herrera is leaving the City Attorney's Office as the corruption investigation into Kelly and other city department heads continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Importantly, Haney noted, Herrera's successor would be appointed by Breed, who had strong political alliances with at least three officials deeply embroiled in the scandal, including Kelly, his wife Naomi Kelly — the former city administrator — and former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You're taking somebody who is leading a corruption investigation, moving them, and then having the executive branch, the mayor, which is the body that's under investigation, appointing the replacement,\" Haney said. \"I think that should be of concern to the residents of San Francisco who really want to make sure that we have effective, ethical government with integrity.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney added, \"I respect Dennis Herrera and think he's a strong leader.\" But he called the role change \"highly unusual.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisors Catherine Stefani and Rafael Mandelman, who represent the Marina and Pacific Heights neighborhoods and the Castro, Noe Valley, and Mission neighborhoods, respectively, are also among the growing group rumored to be eyeing the city attorney job. Neither responded to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Campos, now the chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, told KQED, \"I haven't decided but I'm seriously considering it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Jane Kim, she responded by text, \"Last I checked, we still have a city attorney!\" When asked if she would run when he leaves, she said, \"Let's chat then.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who once worked in the City Attorney's Office under Herrera, is also rumored to be considering the seat, although he told KQED he was not interested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Chiu, meanwhile called Herrera a \"model of public service\" and an inspired choice to lead the SFPUC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about his interest in replacing Herrera, Chiu said, \"I haven't had time to give today's news the consideration it deserves.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, \"Throughout my career, I've always considered where I can best serve the city I love, and will continue to do that.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the ongoing corruption probe, at least one figure who was prominently involved in it isn't too worried about any future city attorney throwing a wrench in the works. Dave Anderson, the former U.S. attorney who led the federal criminal probe into the scandal (as opposed to Herrera's office, which pursued a civil investigation), said he expected the investigation to continue unimpeded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I would expect continuity in the public corruption investigation because there is continuity in the team that's actually driving the investigation forward day to day,\" he said, noting that other leading attorneys in Herrera's office who will remain in place even if he steps down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked for his response, Herrera sought to calm any fears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taking a role at the SFPUC \"should actually alleviate people's concerns, that you have the city's top watchdog also going over to head the PUC,\" he said. \"If there's anybody that's going to send a message that unethical or illegal conduct is not going to be tolerated, and is going to show that they're willing to cooperate with investigations and further them, it's me, since I started this public corruption investigation myself.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED's Alex Emslie contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Over the past year, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera has rooted out wrongdoing in an expansive, still unfolding city corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Herrera has been tapped to lead one of the agencies at the center of that scandal — the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission — a move announced Monday by Mayor London Breed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As head of the city's water and power agency, Herrera would be tasked with reducing San Francisco's dependency on PG&E, California's largest utility, which has itself drawn heavy scrutiny in recent years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The move would also leave an empty seat at the helm of the City Attorney's Office, leading to a potential power shuffle in city government. Those rumored to be vying for the seat include two sitting supervisors, the head of the local Democratic Party and a state assemblymember.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>While some of those rumored to be potential candidates denied a run outright, former city supervisors David Campos and Jane Kim, and current Assemblymember David Chiu, D-San Francisco, both responded to inquiries with statements that left the door open.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If recommended by the SFPUC, Herrera would assume the general manager position previously held by Harlan Kelly, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11849113/u-s-attorney-charges-san-francisco-department-head-with-fraud-in-connection-to-bribery-scheme\">who stepped down in November after being charged\u003c/a> by the U.S. attorney's office in the city's sprawling corruption scandal. Attorneys alleged Kelly accepted dinners and a lavish trip to China paid for by a city permitting agent — who has since pleaded guilty — in exchange for favorable treatment securing contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As head of the agency, Herrera told KQED he'd be ready to clean house.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\"There's obviously been a void of leadership at the Public Utilities Commission,\" he said. \"And the mayor and I, in the course of our discussions about the executive leadership of that agency, each came to the conclusion that putting the city's top watchdog in that position would do a great deal to help restore the legacy and the reputation of that agency and at the same time demonstrate our city's commitment to bringing affordable public power to San Francisco.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Breed said she's \"proud\" to nominate Herrera for the role.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Dennis has been a great champion in San Francisco across a wide range of issues,\" she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Herrera was initially elected as city attorney in 2001, the first Latino to ever hold that office, and has been subsequently reelected five times. His office played a key role in the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark gay marriage equality case and staunchly defended San Francisco's status as a sanctuary city against relentless attacks by the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But it's Herrera's pivotal work investigating City Hall corruption that has some officials concerned about the prospect of him switching roles now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents parts of the South of Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods, said he's worried Herrera is leaving the City Attorney's Office as the corruption investigation into Kelly and other city department heads continues.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Importantly, Haney noted, Herrera's successor would be appointed by Breed, who had strong political alliances with at least three officials deeply embroiled in the scandal, including Kelly, his wife Naomi Kelly — the former city administrator — and former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You're taking somebody who is leading a corruption investigation, moving them, and then having the executive branch, the mayor, which is the body that's under investigation, appointing the replacement,\" Haney said. \"I think that should be of concern to the residents of San Francisco who really want to make sure that we have effective, ethical government with integrity.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney added, \"I respect Dennis Herrera and think he's a strong leader.\" But he called the role change \"highly unusual.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supervisors Catherine Stefani and Rafael Mandelman, who represent the Marina and Pacific Heights neighborhoods and the Castro, Noe Valley, and Mission neighborhoods, respectively, are also among the growing group rumored to be eyeing the city attorney job. Neither responded to a request for comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>David Campos, now the chair of the San Francisco Democratic Party, told KQED, \"I haven't decided but I'm seriously considering it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Jane Kim, she responded by text, \"Last I checked, we still have a city attorney!\" When asked if she would run when he leaves, she said, \"Let's chat then.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, who once worked in the City Attorney's Office under Herrera, is also rumored to be considering the seat, although he told KQED he was not interested.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember Chiu, meanwhile called Herrera a \"model of public service\" and an inspired choice to lead the SFPUC.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Asked about his interest in replacing Herrera, Chiu said, \"I haven't had time to give today's news the consideration it deserves.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added, \"Throughout my career, I've always considered where I can best serve the city I love, and will continue to do that.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the ongoing corruption probe, at least one figure who was prominently involved in it isn't too worried about any future city attorney throwing a wrench in the works. Dave Anderson, the former U.S. attorney who led the federal criminal probe into the scandal (as opposed to Herrera's office, which pursued a civil investigation), said he expected the investigation to continue unimpeded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I would expect continuity in the public corruption investigation because there is continuity in the team that's actually driving the investigation forward day to day,\" he said, noting that other leading attorneys in Herrera's office who will remain in place even if he steps down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked for his response, Herrera sought to calm any fears.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Taking a role at the SFPUC \"should actually alleviate people's concerns, that you have the city's top watchdog also going over to head the PUC,\" he said. \"If there's anybody that's going to send a message that unethical or illegal conduct is not going to be tolerated, and is going to show that they're willing to cooperate with investigations and further them, it's me, since I started this public corruption investigation myself.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED's Alex Emslie contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "SF Corruption Saga: Newly Released Messages Between Former SFPUC Chief and City Contractor Suggest Cozy Relationship",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco’s corruption scandal has sprawled across four city departments, spanned years, and seen bribery touch even mundane aspects of city life, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11863022/sf-corruption-saga-under-nurus-oversight-garbage-company-recology-overcharged-ratepayers-95-million\">like monthly trash bills\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, there’s evidence to suggest it even tried to reach our underwear drawers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federally indicted San Francisco official, who prosecutors allege offered insider details on a citywide contract in exchange for a jet-setting lifestyle provided by an admittedly crooked contractor, also may have sought improper help growing an “undergarments” manufacturing business in China, newly disclosed text messages show.[aside postID=news_11859677 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/SF_corruption_BG_featured001.png']The exchange in question took place in 2014, between former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly and Walter Wong, a contractor and city permit expediter who was hired by housing developers to navigate the city’s byzantine permitting system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the texts, Kelly asks for Wong’s help in assisting an unnamed friend set up an “undergarments” business in China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although it is not obviously evident who actually wanted to set up that business, this exchange provides yet another clear example, among many, in which Kelly solicited assistance from Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal authorities announced corruption charges \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2021/03/san-francisco-corruption/\">against Kelly last November\u003c/a>. They allege he accepted dinners and a lavish trip to China paid for by Wong in exchange for favorable treatment securing city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under San Francisco ethics laws, city officials are barred from soliciting gifts, including in the form of services, from a “restricted source” — someone doing business with the department that the official works for. Moreover, federal law prohibits government officials from defrauding the public through bribery or kickbacks, and from using interstate wire communications to do so, both of which form the basis of the federal charges against Kelly and Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar, who has called for more transparency from the SFPUC in the wake of Kelly’s indictment, says the texts suggest the possibility that additional people may be implicated \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839531/report-corrupt-sf-official-directed-nonprofit-to-pay-60k-to-organizations-under-fbi-investigation\">in the still-unfolding investigation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The text indicates how Kelly used his relationship with Wong to help a friend’s business interests,” Mar told KQED. “This is concerning new evidence of the culture of casual corruption that is unfortunately not limited to one agency or individual.”[aside postID=\"news_11849113\" label=\"original charges against Harlan Kelly\"]Kelly’s attorney, Brian Getz, said he wasn’t aware of the specific text message exchanges related to the underwear business, but that generally, Kelly is a person who helps his friends evenly across the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a general proposition, Harlan would have given that information to anybody if anyone contacted him in connection with trying to manage their business or advance their business,” Getz said. “And [if] Harlan had information that would be helpful, he would have given it. He’s always been very open to requests from the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The messages, which were obtained through public records requests by a person using the pseudonym “anonymous,” and later gathered by KQED, offer a microscopic view of the financial relationship between Wong and Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anonymous” — the requester — has previously contacted KQED about other records related to city government officials. Those records, and also links to SFPUC’s own published records, are automatically posted online to a public records repository, which KQED reviewed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the newly disclosed texts also show that Kelly sought advice from Wong on remodeling his mother-in-law’s kitchen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who first learned of the text exchange from KQED, says seeking such advice may violate city ethics laws and warrant further investigation, particularly into the role that Kelly’s wife, Naomi Kelly, played in the relationship with Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11863970\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 966px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11863970\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_7_AdvicetoRenovateNaomiMomKitchen-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"966\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_7_AdvicetoRenovateNaomiMomKitchen-2.jpg 966w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_7_AdvicetoRenovateNaomiMomKitchen-2-800x354.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_7_AdvicetoRenovateNaomiMomKitchen-2-160x71.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 966px) 100vw, 966px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot of a 2016 text message exchange between former SFPUC General Manager Harlan Kelly (on the right) and permit expediter Walter Wong. \u003ccite>(Courtesy SFPUC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This does not look good,” said Peskin, who is among other city leaders now pushing to expand the corruption investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naomi Kelly served as San Francisco’s city administrator until stepping down in January, following her husband’s indictment. Her reasons for leaving City Hall were initially unclear, as she only tangentially appears in her husband’s federal charging documents and was never actually charged with a crime herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These exchanges, said Peskin, may shed new light on Naomi Kelly’s hesitance to remain in the public eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naomi Kelly’s attorney was quick to refute that suggestion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Naomi stepped down because she needed to take care of her family, which unfortunately in the unequal world that we live in, often falls to women a lot more than men, and even more so in a pandemic, and even more so when the family has children,” her attorney Martin Sabelli said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naomi Kelly, he stressed, was not involved in any aspect of the city corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Naomi Kelly wants people to know that she did not commit a crime. She did not betray the public trust,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong, though, may also have been considered a “restricted source” for Naomi Kelly. In her position as city administrator, she oversaw 25 different departments, including San Francisco Public Works, where Wong frequently conducted business. So, any time Wong had contracts with Public Works, Naomi Kelly was in an oversight role.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Gordon Mar, San Francisco supervisor\"]‘This is concerning new evidence of the culture of casual corruption that is unfortunately not limited to one agency or individual.’[/pullquote]But taken all together, Peskin said, the text messages raise “some very serious questions not only about what the general manager of the PUC knew, and favors he appears to be taking, but what the city administrator of San Francisco, who is his spouse and cohabitant, knew. This is deeply troubling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Bottom line,” he added, “is it has the appearance of, if not the fact of, a government contract funded by the taxpayers being given to a vendor who is giving cut-rate services to a government employee for said favors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since being indicted by the FBI in June 2020, Wong has pleaded guilty to his charges and has agreed to cooperate with the federal government’s investigation, while Kelly — who was charged in November — has flatly denied all allegations against him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong has also provided the U.S. attorney’s office with evidence that he gifted Kelly the 2016 trip to China, as well as free meals and personal car service (with Wong as the driver), with the expectation that “Kelly would in return use his official position to benefit Wong’s business ventures,” including securing a contract with the SFPUC to install LED lights in street lamps across the city, according to the federal complaint against Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Revealing Texts\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In July, following the public records request from the person labeled “anonymous,” the SFPUC released more than 50 pages of text messages between Wong and Kelly, sent from 2015 through 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Per California law, communications on city employees’ personal accounts or devices, including text messages on personal cellphones, may be obtained through public records requests if they pertain to public business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the messages were heavily redacted, with blacked-out text the agency didn’t want the public to see. The SFPUC then almost immediately asked the requester of the documents — “anonymous” — to destroy the leaked document, because the redactions were made in Microsoft Word, allowing anyone to simply delete the blacked-out lines to reveal the hidden text — a method the agency later deemed “insufficient.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This wasn’t a lower-level staffer goof-up, however. The redactions were made by Harlan Kelly himself.[aside postID=\"news_11862493\" label=\"on the philosophy of scandal\"]Michael Carlin, the SFPUC’s acting general manager, explained as much \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20515687-2-22-21-letter-re-harlan-kelly-texts\">in an email sent to “anonymous” in February\u003c/a>, which the agency later shared with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mr. Kelly redacted a significant number of text messages in the document, asserting that the redacted communications between him and Mr. Wong did not relate to City business. Following the standard practice of City departments and the general guidance of the City Attorney’s Office, the SFPUC relied on Mr. Kelly to prepare the redactions, and did not ask to review the unredacted text messages before producing the document to you in response to your records request,” Carlin wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, after being tipped off by “anonymous,” KQED obtained the exchanges before they were pulled down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The SFPUC \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20490214-harlan_kelly_text_messages_-_redacted_jan_29_2021\">then re-released the text messages last month\u003c/a>, with many of the conversations detailed in full and the black boxes removed. Except, not all of the text messages listed in the first release were included in the second version.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Read the re-released text messages \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20490214-harlan_kelly_text_messages_-_redacted_jan_29_2021\">from SFPUC here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED was able to read what was behind the blacked-out boxes of the first release — by simply either deleting the bars or changing the font color — believing strongly in the public’s right to know about Harlan Kelly’s financial dealings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many of the revealed redactions included content of a personal nature — and will not be disclosed here — others appear to be related to the charges against Kelly, and the city’s ongoing corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And some of the text exchanges KQED uncovered were not included in the agency’s second release of the documents because it fell outside of the years specified in the original public records request, an SFPUC spokesperson said. That includes the 2014 exchange about the undergarments business, which were apparently shared in the first batch by mistake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s attorney lambasted the SFPUC for releasing some of the text exchanges and defended his client’s decision to block the public from seeing discussions with Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those additions have nothing to do with work-related topics,” Getz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The solicitation for help with an undergarments business is not something that appeared in the federal government’s initial filings against Kelly — a request would only be considered illegal if it had taken place at the same time Wong was seeking business from Harlan Kelly’s department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/D4GordonMar/status/1364388810918821890\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s why the federal government is alleging that Kelly’s 2016 trip to China, allegedly paid for by Wong, violated federal law — because it occurred while Wong was seeking the multimillion-dollar citywide lighting contract from Kelly’s department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an example of the incestuous relationships at the highest reaches of government,” said Supervisor Matt Haney, on learning of the “undergarments” exchange. “All of this is not only inappropriate and unethical, but it may very well be illegal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also suggests that others may have been involved, he said. “This is a string that when you keep pulling it, more and more people are involved and caught up in it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Naomi’s Mom’s Kitchen\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Sabelli, Naomi Kelly’s attorney, said there was nothing problematic with the specific text exchanges about the kitchen remodel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Well, that text message certainly doesn’t establish any kind of financial relationship,” he said. “That sounds like one person asking somebody who he thinks knows about construction and renovation for advice for his wife’s mother. That’s what that sounds like to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a smart thing to do before you renovate your house to get as many opinions as possible,” Sabelli said.[aside postID=\"news_11849988\" label=\"Willie Brown reflects on SF corruption\"]Sabelli said Walter Wong never ended up inspecting Naomi Kelly’s mother’s home. The incident, however, still raises questions for Peskin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At a minimum, when you’re in a position like that, and you’re the city administrator who oversees the director of Public Works, and your spouse is the general manager of the PUC, you are held to a higher standard, and you need to ask questions: ‘Does Walter have any business in front of my spouse’s agency? Does Walter have any business in front of an agency under my control and supervision?’ ” Peskin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney also said the texts appear to be problematic because they are a “mixing of personal and business and city decisions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He noted, however, that “it’s unclear if Naomi was aware of this, or what role she actually played in it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Haney said, “it certainly raises more questions,” and “definitely” warrants investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>‘Happy Valentine’s Day!’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While it isn’t a crime to have pals, the text messages obtained show what appears to be a deep personal friendship between Wong and Harlan Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one text message from 2017, Kelly wishes Wong a “Happy Valentine’s Day!” before asking if Wong fixed a leak in his home. In another 2018 exchange, the two discuss plans to practice playing ping-pong. They also plan a lunch, throwing around different preferred restaurants, including the R&G Lounge in Chinatown, on Kearny Street, where Wong had previously wined and dined another city official, an instance later found to be in violation of city ethics rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11863988\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 977px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11863988 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_13_HappyValentinesDayLeak-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"977\" height=\"341\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_13_HappyValentinesDayLeak-2.jpg 977w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_13_HappyValentinesDayLeak-2-800x279.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_13_HappyValentinesDayLeak-2-160x56.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot of a 2017 text message exchange between former SFPUC General Manager Harlan Kelly (on the right) and permit expediter Walter Wong. \u003ccite>(Courtesy SFPUC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was a personal element. They were friends,” said Getz, Kelly’s attorney. “I think Walter Wong attended the wedding between Harlan Kelly and Naomi. I think they’ve been friends for a long time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong and Harlan Kelly also discussed attending a birthday party for the late Mayor Ed Lee, in which Wong reveals it will be held “in Citi center” and adds, “ps do not tell anyone.” Citi Center is a building owned by Wong — and long used to host events for big-wig city politicos, including former mayors, like Willie Brown. Wong’s offices were raided by the FBI early last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While none of these texts necessarily raise eyebrows on their own, they offer a view into the depth of the relationship between Wong and Kelly. The personal bridge-building that led to the allegations in San Francisco’s corruption scandal was built day by day, brick by brick, undergarment by undergarment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco’s corruption scandal has sprawled across four city departments, spanned years, and seen bribery touch even mundane aspects of city life, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11863022/sf-corruption-saga-under-nurus-oversight-garbage-company-recology-overcharged-ratepayers-95-million\">like monthly trash bills\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, there’s evidence to suggest it even tried to reach our underwear drawers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A federally indicted San Francisco official, who prosecutors allege offered insider details on a citywide contract in exchange for a jet-setting lifestyle provided by an admittedly crooked contractor, also may have sought improper help growing an “undergarments” manufacturing business in China, newly disclosed text messages show.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The exchange in question took place in 2014, between former San Francisco Public Utilities Commission General Manager Harlan Kelly and Walter Wong, a contractor and city permit expediter who was hired by housing developers to navigate the city’s byzantine permitting system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the texts, Kelly asks for Wong’s help in assisting an unnamed friend set up an “undergarments” business in China.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although it is not obviously evident who actually wanted to set up that business, this exchange provides yet another clear example, among many, in which Kelly solicited assistance from Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal authorities announced corruption charges \u003ca href=\"https://missionlocal.org/2021/03/san-francisco-corruption/\">against Kelly last November\u003c/a>. They allege he accepted dinners and a lavish trip to China paid for by Wong in exchange for favorable treatment securing city contracts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under San Francisco ethics laws, city officials are barred from soliciting gifts, including in the form of services, from a “restricted source” — someone doing business with the department that the official works for. Moreover, federal law prohibits government officials from defrauding the public through bribery or kickbacks, and from using interstate wire communications to do so, both of which form the basis of the federal charges against Kelly and Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar, who has called for more transparency from the SFPUC in the wake of Kelly’s indictment, says the texts suggest the possibility that additional people may be implicated \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839531/report-corrupt-sf-official-directed-nonprofit-to-pay-60k-to-organizations-under-fbi-investigation\">in the still-unfolding investigation\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The text indicates how Kelly used his relationship with Wong to help a friend’s business interests,” Mar told KQED. “This is concerning new evidence of the culture of casual corruption that is unfortunately not limited to one agency or individual.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Kelly’s attorney, Brian Getz, said he wasn’t aware of the specific text message exchanges related to the underwear business, but that generally, Kelly is a person who helps his friends evenly across the board.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a general proposition, Harlan would have given that information to anybody if anyone contacted him in connection with trying to manage their business or advance their business,” Getz said. “And [if] Harlan had information that would be helpful, he would have given it. He’s always been very open to requests from the community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The messages, which were obtained through public records requests by a person using the pseudonym “anonymous,” and later gathered by KQED, offer a microscopic view of the financial relationship between Wong and Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Anonymous” — the requester — has previously contacted KQED about other records related to city government officials. Those records, and also links to SFPUC’s own published records, are automatically posted online to a public records repository, which KQED reviewed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of the newly disclosed texts also show that Kelly sought advice from Wong on remodeling his mother-in-law’s kitchen.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco Supervisor Aaron Peskin, who first learned of the text exchange from KQED, says seeking such advice may violate city ethics laws and warrant further investigation, particularly into the role that Kelly’s wife, Naomi Kelly, played in the relationship with Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11863970\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 966px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11863970\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_7_AdvicetoRenovateNaomiMomKitchen-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"966\" height=\"427\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_7_AdvicetoRenovateNaomiMomKitchen-2.jpg 966w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_7_AdvicetoRenovateNaomiMomKitchen-2-800x354.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_7_AdvicetoRenovateNaomiMomKitchen-2-160x71.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 966px) 100vw, 966px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot of a 2016 text message exchange between former SFPUC General Manager Harlan Kelly (on the right) and permit expediter Walter Wong. \u003ccite>(Courtesy SFPUC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“This does not look good,” said Peskin, who is among other city leaders now pushing to expand the corruption investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naomi Kelly served as San Francisco’s city administrator until stepping down in January, following her husband’s indictment. Her reasons for leaving City Hall were initially unclear, as she only tangentially appears in her husband’s federal charging documents and was never actually charged with a crime herself.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>These exchanges, said Peskin, may shed new light on Naomi Kelly’s hesitance to remain in the public eye.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naomi Kelly’s attorney was quick to refute that suggestion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Naomi stepped down because she needed to take care of her family, which unfortunately in the unequal world that we live in, often falls to women a lot more than men, and even more so in a pandemic, and even more so when the family has children,” her attorney Martin Sabelli said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Naomi Kelly, he stressed, was not involved in any aspect of the city corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Naomi Kelly wants people to know that she did not commit a crime. She did not betray the public trust,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong, though, may also have been considered a “restricted source” for Naomi Kelly. In her position as city administrator, she oversaw 25 different departments, including San Francisco Public Works, where Wong frequently conducted business. So, any time Wong had contracts with Public Works, Naomi Kelly was in an oversight role.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But taken all together, Peskin said, the text messages raise “some very serious questions not only about what the general manager of the PUC knew, and favors he appears to be taking, but what the city administrator of San Francisco, who is his spouse and cohabitant, knew. This is deeply troubling.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Bottom line,” he added, “is it has the appearance of, if not the fact of, a government contract funded by the taxpayers being given to a vendor who is giving cut-rate services to a government employee for said favors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since being indicted by the FBI in June 2020, Wong has pleaded guilty to his charges and has agreed to cooperate with the federal government’s investigation, while Kelly — who was charged in November — has flatly denied all allegations against him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong has also provided the U.S. attorney’s office with evidence that he gifted Kelly the 2016 trip to China, as well as free meals and personal car service (with Wong as the driver), with the expectation that “Kelly would in return use his official position to benefit Wong’s business ventures,” including securing a contract with the SFPUC to install LED lights in street lamps across the city, according to the federal complaint against Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Revealing Texts\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>In July, following the public records request from the person labeled “anonymous,” the SFPUC released more than 50 pages of text messages between Wong and Kelly, sent from 2015 through 2018.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Per California law, communications on city employees’ personal accounts or devices, including text messages on personal cellphones, may be obtained through public records requests if they pertain to public business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the messages were heavily redacted, with blacked-out text the agency didn’t want the public to see. The SFPUC then almost immediately asked the requester of the documents — “anonymous” — to destroy the leaked document, because the redactions were made in Microsoft Word, allowing anyone to simply delete the blacked-out lines to reveal the hidden text — a method the agency later deemed “insufficient.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This wasn’t a lower-level staffer goof-up, however. The redactions were made by Harlan Kelly himself.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Michael Carlin, the SFPUC’s acting general manager, explained as much \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20515687-2-22-21-letter-re-harlan-kelly-texts\">in an email sent to “anonymous” in February\u003c/a>, which the agency later shared with KQED.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Mr. Kelly redacted a significant number of text messages in the document, asserting that the redacted communications between him and Mr. Wong did not relate to City business. Following the standard practice of City departments and the general guidance of the City Attorney’s Office, the SFPUC relied on Mr. Kelly to prepare the redactions, and did not ask to review the unredacted text messages before producing the document to you in response to your records request,” Carlin wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, after being tipped off by “anonymous,” KQED obtained the exchanges before they were pulled down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The SFPUC \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20490214-harlan_kelly_text_messages_-_redacted_jan_29_2021\">then re-released the text messages last month\u003c/a>, with many of the conversations detailed in full and the black boxes removed. Except, not all of the text messages listed in the first release were included in the second version.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Read the re-released text messages \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20490214-harlan_kelly_text_messages_-_redacted_jan_29_2021\">from SFPUC here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>KQED was able to read what was behind the blacked-out boxes of the first release — by simply either deleting the bars or changing the font color — believing strongly in the public’s right to know about Harlan Kelly’s financial dealings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many of the revealed redactions included content of a personal nature — and will not be disclosed here — others appear to be related to the charges against Kelly, and the city’s ongoing corruption scandal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And some of the text exchanges KQED uncovered were not included in the agency’s second release of the documents because it fell outside of the years specified in the original public records request, an SFPUC spokesperson said. That includes the 2014 exchange about the undergarments business, which were apparently shared in the first batch by mistake.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Kelly’s attorney lambasted the SFPUC for releasing some of the text exchanges and defended his client’s decision to block the public from seeing discussions with Wong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Those additions have nothing to do with work-related topics,” Getz said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The solicitation for help with an undergarments business is not something that appeared in the federal government’s initial filings against Kelly — a request would only be considered illegal if it had taken place at the same time Wong was seeking business from Harlan Kelly’s department.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>That’s why the federal government is alleging that Kelly’s 2016 trip to China, allegedly paid for by Wong, violated federal law — because it occurred while Wong was seeking the multimillion-dollar citywide lighting contract from Kelly’s department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is an example of the incestuous relationships at the highest reaches of government,” said Supervisor Matt Haney, on learning of the “undergarments” exchange. “All of this is not only inappropriate and unethical, but it may very well be illegal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It also suggests that others may have been involved, he said. “This is a string that when you keep pulling it, more and more people are involved and caught up in it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>Naomi’s Mom’s Kitchen\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Sabelli, Naomi Kelly’s attorney, said there was nothing problematic with the specific text exchanges about the kitchen remodel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Well, that text message certainly doesn’t establish any kind of financial relationship,” he said. “That sounds like one person asking somebody who he thinks knows about construction and renovation for advice for his wife’s mother. That’s what that sounds like to me.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a smart thing to do before you renovate your house to get as many opinions as possible,” Sabelli said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Sabelli said Walter Wong never ended up inspecting Naomi Kelly’s mother’s home. The incident, however, still raises questions for Peskin.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At a minimum, when you’re in a position like that, and you’re the city administrator who oversees the director of Public Works, and your spouse is the general manager of the PUC, you are held to a higher standard, and you need to ask questions: ‘Does Walter have any business in front of my spouse’s agency? Does Walter have any business in front of an agency under my control and supervision?’ ” Peskin said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney also said the texts appear to be problematic because they are a “mixing of personal and business and city decisions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He noted, however, that “it’s unclear if Naomi was aware of this, or what role she actually played in it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, Haney said, “it certainly raises more questions,” and “definitely” warrants investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch3>\u003cstrong>‘Happy Valentine’s Day!’\u003c/strong>\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>While it isn’t a crime to have pals, the text messages obtained show what appears to be a deep personal friendship between Wong and Harlan Kelly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In one text message from 2017, Kelly wishes Wong a “Happy Valentine’s Day!” before asking if Wong fixed a leak in his home. In another 2018 exchange, the two discuss plans to practice playing ping-pong. They also plan a lunch, throwing around different preferred restaurants, including the R&G Lounge in Chinatown, on Kearny Street, where Wong had previously wined and dined another city official, an instance later found to be in violation of city ethics rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11863988\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 977px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11863988 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_13_HappyValentinesDayLeak-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"977\" height=\"341\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_13_HappyValentinesDayLeak-2.jpg 977w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_13_HappyValentinesDayLeak-2-800x279.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2021/03/WWHK_13_HappyValentinesDayLeak-2-160x56.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 977px) 100vw, 977px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Screenshot of a 2017 text message exchange between former SFPUC General Manager Harlan Kelly (on the right) and permit expediter Walter Wong. \u003ccite>(Courtesy SFPUC)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There was a personal element. They were friends,” said Getz, Kelly’s attorney. “I think Walter Wong attended the wedding between Harlan Kelly and Naomi. I think they’ve been friends for a long time.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wong and Harlan Kelly also discussed attending a birthday party for the late Mayor Ed Lee, in which Wong reveals it will be held “in Citi center” and adds, “ps do not tell anyone.” Citi Center is a building owned by Wong — and long used to host events for big-wig city politicos, including former mayors, like Willie Brown. Wong’s offices were raided by the FBI early last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While none of these texts necessarily raise eyebrows on their own, they offer a view into the depth of the relationship between Wong and Kelly. The personal bridge-building that led to the allegations in San Francisco’s corruption scandal was built day by day, brick by brick, undergarment by undergarment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San Francisco’s ever-unfolding corruption scandal has toppled the careers of four sitting city officials. After the investigation was first announced early last year, like dominoes, they fell from grace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, Mohammed Nuru, former director of San Francisco Public Works, was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">arrested on corruption charges\u003c/a> in January 2020, and lost his job. Less than two months later, Tom Hui, the former director of the Department of Building Inspection, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">faced allegations of breaching ethics laws\u003c/a> by the City Attorney’s Office and resigned before being dismissed. And in November, Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the city’s Public Utilities Commission, faced similar charges, and stepped down from his position. His wife, Naomi Kelly, similarly abandoned her post as city administrator after being implicated in the charges against her husband, despite not being charged herself.[aside postID=\"news_11826653\" label=\"A look at policies that paved the way for the scandal\"]And the case continues to unfold. Just this week, City Attorney Dennis Herrera \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2021/03/01/herrera-suspends-five-nuru-linked-executives-and-their-companies-from-receiving-sf-funds/\">issued first-of-its-kind orders to suspend city contracts\u003c/a> with companies and their executives who were found connected to the bribery and corruption scandal, pausing their business with San Francisco while justice takes its course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those corruption charges stemmed\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839531/report-corrupt-sf-official-directed-nonprofit-to-pay-60k-to-organizations-under-fbi-investigation\"> from a case\u003c/a> spearheaded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, led by former U.S. Attorney David Anderson — appointed by the Trump administration — whose last day on the job was Friday, Feb. 26. President Biden has yet to appoint his successor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his way out the door, Anderson, who hails from San Jose, took time to speak with KQED reporter Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez about his perspective leading public corruption investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson was quick to firmly address what is perhaps the top-of-mind question for many San Franciscans: He does not believe any incoming replacement for his job will in any way divert resources from the ongoing corruption case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At any one time, about six assistant U.S. attorneys have been working on the corruption investigation, when some cases may only have one or two attorneys, he said, a commitment of resources that demonstrates the importance of the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is anybody among this field of candidates going to turn away from a promising investigation? It’s hard to believe,” he said.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"David Anderson, former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California\"]‘I do think that a city like San Francisco is best served not just by honest leaders, but also by an active citizenry. And I do wonder about the level of engagement that I see in San Francisco.’[/pullquote]One important caveat hung over the conversation — as an attorney, Anderson cannot comment \u003cem>directly \u003c/em>on any active case. In lieu of specifics, we asked Anderson to engage in a more philosophical conversation about corruption in general, and how his views have evolved over the course of this investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez: A lot of our readers and listeners, when they first heard the news and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11838356/bribery-and-fraud-two-contractors-plead-guilty-in-sf-corruption-case\">then watched it unfold with every other official\u003c/a> over the last year, they felt it in almost all the different classic stages — anguish, anger, disappointment. When you first understood the totality of this, how did you emotionally react to that knowledge? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>U.S. Attorney David Anderson:\u003c/strong> One of the things they try to do to you in law school is to drub the emotion out of you. You just spend so much time right from the very beginning of your training as a lawyer thinking about things with your head more than your heart. So that’s one piece of context. And the other piece of context is that I’ve been doing this job in one form or other for more than 30 years. I’ve seen a few things in every different kind of case that we do in federal court that could be held up as the source of, to use your words, anguish, anger, disappointment. And you could add a long list of adjectives to it — fear and frustration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thing that’s unique and powerful about the public corruption cases is the breach of public trust. And the idea that we are a sovereign people and the people who lead us are our public servants. And so it’s outrageous when you come to the conclusion that those who have been hired to serve the public are instead serving themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11849113\" label=\"more on the expansion of the corruption scandal\"]Now, I’m talking and going with you along this philosophical line. Obviously, in the context of any particular case, defendants who’ve been charged but have not been adjudicated are presumed innocent. And I have a profound respect for that presumption of innocence. So I want to just close by emphasizing that I am reacting to general questions and not talking about any particular case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>And that’s totally fair. You make the point that you’ve seen a lot in your years of service. So for people who are like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe my government is doing this,’ where would you put this in the context of corruption in other cities? Where would you put it on the scale?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not able to compare what is happening in San Francisco to other cities. I just don’t have the competency to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The one thing that I would say that I think connects fairly to your question is that early on when I returned to the office as a U.S. attorney, I identified 25 people in my office and put each one of them in charge of one particular aspect of the myriad of different kinds of cases that we handle. And one of those 25 is an assistant U.S. attorney who I put in charge of public corruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I said, ‘OK, what I want you to do is I want you to find the people in Chicago and in New York and in the other offices that you identify that have greater experience with public corruption cases than historically this office in San Francisco has had. Find them, talk to them, come back and tell me what it is that we should be thinking about when we do these cases. And he did that. And I think that that has been a contributor to the work that we’ve done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What would you say to the people who ask, ‘Should this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821145/months-after-sf-public-works-boss-nurus-arrest-staff-push-for-corruption-cleanup\">shake my faith\u003c/a> in my local government?’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I do think that a city like San Francisco is best served not just by honest leaders, but also by an active citizenry. And I do wonder about the level of engagement that I see in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just generally speaking, with our political process, what I see is a small number of people who are highly actively engaged. And I see a larger number of people who are enjoying all the other things that San Francisco has to offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, to the extent that looking at the cases that we have charged serves as a wake-up call for someone who is in San Francisco — maybe I should be paying more attention to this — I welcome that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>At this point, several people connected to the scandal have pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators, including restaurateur Nick Bovis and Walter Wong, a permit expediter. What’s their motivation for doing so? Did they go, ‘I can’t do this anymore!’ Or was it something where, in a practical matter, fancy lawyering and whatnot, they didn’t really have much of an option in front of them?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m trying to have the conversation that you want to have and certainly can talk generally about the process by which defendants come to cooperate. That’s something that I’ve seen on both sides of the courtroom going back for four decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think probably the easiest way to look at that is from the perspective of the client-counsel interaction and again, not talking about any particular case and certainly not intruding on any particular attorney-client privilege, but just positing sort of the hypothetical conversation. It usually goes something like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’re confronting these charges. You’re confronting this evidence. What’s going to be your answer? And oftentimes there’s sort of a moment where the client is saying, ‘Well, you know, how come I got to answer? You’re the lawyer.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, of course, the lawyer doesn’t know the facts. The lawyer can only learn those from the client, maybe from the discovery that’s provided by the prosecutor. So eventually the conversation will move in the direction of, ‘Do we have an answer to this or don’t we?’ And if we do, then let’s get out there and provide that answer, and if we don’t, well, then let’s start planning for our day of reckoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11849988\" label=\"Willie Brown gives his opinion on the scandal\"]And again, looking at this from that defense perspective, looking at it from the perspective of client and counsel, you can mount a variety of non-factual defenses. If a defendant’s profound constitutional rights have been violated, you may have defenses to the charges even if the charges are true. So there’s a lot of different directions from the defense perspective that you can go. One of the things you can do is, you can cooperate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And each client has to decide, is this the right move for me? And clients will do that for a variety of reasons. They’ll do it because they want to mitigate exposure. They’ll do it because they feel remorse. They want to try and make things better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It does happen that you have cooperators that come to you, they come to you either in public or they come to you in secret. And then those cooperators can become an important part of taking the next step or the next half step in an investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You touched on this a bit \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101882168/u-s-attorney-david-anderson-leaves-office\">on KQED’s Forum\u003c/a>, but I’m interested in the rationale. Is there a possibility your successor might decide to shift resources and say, ‘I want fewer eyes on this case and more eyes on another case?’ \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The names I’ve heard in the public sphere of candidates to take over the U.S. attorney’s job are experienced, capable. All of them are alums of the U.S. attorney’s office. I’m thinking about this now. All of them are people with whom I’ve served previously. And so this is a strong field of candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some hypothetical sense, could a new U.S. attorney redirect resources? Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is anybody among this field of candidates going to turn away from a promising investigation? It’s hard to believe.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"David Anderson\"]‘It’s outrageous when you come to the conclusion that those who have been hired to serve the public are instead serving themselves.’[/pullquote]\u003cstrong>In looking back at this major corruption case that has shaken the city, how do you feel about what you and your officers were able to accomplish? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sense, the business of a prosecutor is always unfinished. There’s never a point where you wake up and you’re like, ‘Oh, good news, no crime today!’ So every day you drive your docket is a day that you’re pushing back on the evils of our community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so whether I served for two weeks or two years or two decades, that idea of unfinished business would still be true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So what will you do now? Is this a John Elway, ‘I’m going to Disneyland,’ moment for you?’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll take some time and then head back to private practice. I’ve done basically three things in my professional life: I’ve clerked, I’ve prosecuted and I’ve defended. So I’ll head back to private practice — I’ve enjoyed that as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has been interesting to take part in the public life of San Francisco as I’ve been able to do as U.S. attorney, and I would say that I’m describing that as an interesting experience, sort of in the same way that my dad might say, ‘This was an interesting new dish that we got for dinner tonight.’ It’s pluses and minuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being U.S. attorney is a great job. You are not tethered in your work to the demands of your clients. Instead, you’re given a broad mandate directly from the president, from the Senate, from the attorney general, to effectuate justice as effectively as you possibly can in your district. You’re given incredible talent to act upon that in the sense of 135 [assistant attorneys], hundreds of staff, and then the partnership of all of the law enforcement agencies with which we team. So it’s an amazing position in all those ways. And then also, you know, you get an opportunity like I’m talking to you, to speak in a public way. So all those things are fabulous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the same time, in private practice, you’re just obsessing over your clients, over their problems. And then that can be pretty great, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San Francisco’s ever-unfolding corruption scandal has toppled the careers of four sitting city officials. After the investigation was first announced early last year, like dominoes, they fell from grace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, Mohammed Nuru, former director of San Francisco Public Works, was \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11798447/sf-public-works-director-mohammed-nuru-arrested-by-fbi\">arrested on corruption charges\u003c/a> in January 2020, and lost his job. Less than two months later, Tom Hui, the former director of the Department of Building Inspection, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/philmatier/article/SF-s-building-chief-Tom-Hui-pulls-the-plug-on-15148650.php\">faced allegations of breaching ethics laws\u003c/a> by the City Attorney’s Office and resigned before being dismissed. And in November, Harlan Kelly, the former general manager of the city’s Public Utilities Commission, faced similar charges, and stepped down from his position. His wife, Naomi Kelly, similarly abandoned her post as city administrator after being implicated in the charges against her husband, despite not being charged herself.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And the case continues to unfold. Just this week, City Attorney Dennis Herrera \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfcityattorney.org/2021/03/01/herrera-suspends-five-nuru-linked-executives-and-their-companies-from-receiving-sf-funds/\">issued first-of-its-kind orders to suspend city contracts\u003c/a> with companies and their executives who were found connected to the bribery and corruption scandal, pausing their business with San Francisco while justice takes its course.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those corruption charges stemmed\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11839531/report-corrupt-sf-official-directed-nonprofit-to-pay-60k-to-organizations-under-fbi-investigation\"> from a case\u003c/a> spearheaded by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California, led by former U.S. Attorney David Anderson — appointed by the Trump administration — whose last day on the job was Friday, Feb. 26. President Biden has yet to appoint his successor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On his way out the door, Anderson, who hails from San Jose, took time to speak with KQED reporter Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez about his perspective leading public corruption investigations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Anderson was quick to firmly address what is perhaps the top-of-mind question for many San Franciscans: He does not believe any incoming replacement for his job will in any way divert resources from the ongoing corruption case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At any one time, about six assistant U.S. attorneys have been working on the corruption investigation, when some cases may only have one or two attorneys, he said, a commitment of resources that demonstrates the importance of the case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is anybody among this field of candidates going to turn away from a promising investigation? It’s hard to believe,” he said.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>One important caveat hung over the conversation — as an attorney, Anderson cannot comment \u003cem>directly \u003c/em>on any active case. In lieu of specifics, we asked Anderson to engage in a more philosophical conversation about corruption in general, and how his views have evolved over the course of this investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez: A lot of our readers and listeners, when they first heard the news and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11838356/bribery-and-fraud-two-contractors-plead-guilty-in-sf-corruption-case\">then watched it unfold with every other official\u003c/a> over the last year, they felt it in almost all the different classic stages — anguish, anger, disappointment. When you first understood the totality of this, how did you emotionally react to that knowledge? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>U.S. Attorney David Anderson:\u003c/strong> One of the things they try to do to you in law school is to drub the emotion out of you. You just spend so much time right from the very beginning of your training as a lawyer thinking about things with your head more than your heart. So that’s one piece of context. And the other piece of context is that I’ve been doing this job in one form or other for more than 30 years. I’ve seen a few things in every different kind of case that we do in federal court that could be held up as the source of, to use your words, anguish, anger, disappointment. And you could add a long list of adjectives to it — fear and frustration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The thing that’s unique and powerful about the public corruption cases is the breach of public trust. And the idea that we are a sovereign people and the people who lead us are our public servants. And so it’s outrageous when you come to the conclusion that those who have been hired to serve the public are instead serving themselves.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Now, I’m talking and going with you along this philosophical line. Obviously, in the context of any particular case, defendants who’ve been charged but have not been adjudicated are presumed innocent. And I have a profound respect for that presumption of innocence. So I want to just close by emphasizing that I am reacting to general questions and not talking about any particular case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>And that’s totally fair. You make the point that you’ve seen a lot in your years of service. So for people who are like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t believe my government is doing this,’ where would you put this in the context of corruption in other cities? Where would you put it on the scale?\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m not able to compare what is happening in San Francisco to other cities. I just don’t have the competency to do that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The one thing that I would say that I think connects fairly to your question is that early on when I returned to the office as a U.S. attorney, I identified 25 people in my office and put each one of them in charge of one particular aspect of the myriad of different kinds of cases that we handle. And one of those 25 is an assistant U.S. attorney who I put in charge of public corruption.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And I said, ‘OK, what I want you to do is I want you to find the people in Chicago and in New York and in the other offices that you identify that have greater experience with public corruption cases than historically this office in San Francisco has had. Find them, talk to them, come back and tell me what it is that we should be thinking about when we do these cases. And he did that. And I think that that has been a contributor to the work that we’ve done.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What would you say to the people who ask, ‘Should this \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821145/months-after-sf-public-works-boss-nurus-arrest-staff-push-for-corruption-cleanup\">shake my faith\u003c/a> in my local government?’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I do think that a city like San Francisco is best served not just by honest leaders, but also by an active citizenry. And I do wonder about the level of engagement that I see in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Just generally speaking, with our political process, what I see is a small number of people who are highly actively engaged. And I see a larger number of people who are enjoying all the other things that San Francisco has to offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, to the extent that looking at the cases that we have charged serves as a wake-up call for someone who is in San Francisco — maybe I should be paying more attention to this — I welcome that.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>At this point, several people connected to the scandal have pleaded guilty and cooperated with investigators, including restaurateur Nick Bovis and Walter Wong, a permit expediter. What’s their motivation for doing so? Did they go, ‘I can’t do this anymore!’ Or was it something where, in a practical matter, fancy lawyering and whatnot, they didn’t really have much of an option in front of them?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’m trying to have the conversation that you want to have and certainly can talk generally about the process by which defendants come to cooperate. That’s something that I’ve seen on both sides of the courtroom going back for four decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I think probably the easiest way to look at that is from the perspective of the client-counsel interaction and again, not talking about any particular case and certainly not intruding on any particular attorney-client privilege, but just positing sort of the hypothetical conversation. It usually goes something like this:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You’re confronting these charges. You’re confronting this evidence. What’s going to be your answer? And oftentimes there’s sort of a moment where the client is saying, ‘Well, you know, how come I got to answer? You’re the lawyer.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But, of course, the lawyer doesn’t know the facts. The lawyer can only learn those from the client, maybe from the discovery that’s provided by the prosecutor. So eventually the conversation will move in the direction of, ‘Do we have an answer to this or don’t we?’ And if we do, then let’s get out there and provide that answer, and if we don’t, well, then let’s start planning for our day of reckoning.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>And again, looking at this from that defense perspective, looking at it from the perspective of client and counsel, you can mount a variety of non-factual defenses. If a defendant’s profound constitutional rights have been violated, you may have defenses to the charges even if the charges are true. So there’s a lot of different directions from the defense perspective that you can go. One of the things you can do is, you can cooperate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And each client has to decide, is this the right move for me? And clients will do that for a variety of reasons. They’ll do it because they want to mitigate exposure. They’ll do it because they feel remorse. They want to try and make things better.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It does happen that you have cooperators that come to you, they come to you either in public or they come to you in secret. And then those cooperators can become an important part of taking the next step or the next half step in an investigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>You touched on this a bit \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101882168/u-s-attorney-david-anderson-leaves-office\">on KQED’s Forum\u003c/a>, but I’m interested in the rationale. Is there a possibility your successor might decide to shift resources and say, ‘I want fewer eyes on this case and more eyes on another case?’ \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The names I’ve heard in the public sphere of candidates to take over the U.S. attorney’s job are experienced, capable. All of them are alums of the U.S. attorney’s office. I’m thinking about this now. All of them are people with whom I’ve served previously. And so this is a strong field of candidates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In some hypothetical sense, could a new U.S. attorney redirect resources? Yeah.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Is anybody among this field of candidates going to turn away from a promising investigation? It’s hard to believe.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cstrong>In looking back at this major corruption case that has shaken the city, how do you feel about what you and your officers were able to accomplish? \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a sense, the business of a prosecutor is always unfinished. There’s never a point where you wake up and you’re like, ‘Oh, good news, no crime today!’ So every day you drive your docket is a day that you’re pushing back on the evils of our community.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And so whether I served for two weeks or two years or two decades, that idea of unfinished business would still be true.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>So what will you do now? Is this a John Elway, ‘I’m going to Disneyland,’ moment for you?’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I’ll take some time and then head back to private practice. I’ve done basically three things in my professional life: I’ve clerked, I’ve prosecuted and I’ve defended. So I’ll head back to private practice — I’ve enjoyed that as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It has been interesting to take part in the public life of San Francisco as I’ve been able to do as U.S. attorney, and I would say that I’m describing that as an interesting experience, sort of in the same way that my dad might say, ‘This was an interesting new dish that we got for dinner tonight.’ It’s pluses and minuses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Being U.S. attorney is a great job. You are not tethered in your work to the demands of your clients. Instead, you’re given a broad mandate directly from the president, from the Senate, from the attorney general, to effectuate justice as effectively as you possibly can in your district. You’re given incredible talent to act upon that in the sense of 135 [assistant attorneys], hundreds of staff, and then the partnership of all of the law enforcement agencies with which we team. So it’s an amazing position in all those ways. And then also, you know, you get an opportunity like I’m talking to you, to speak in a public way. So all those things are fabulous.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But at the same time, in private practice, you’re just obsessing over your clients, over their problems. And then that can be pretty great, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"soldout": {
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"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
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