Tow operator faces charges in corruption case

Sukhbir Singh is accused of trying to bribe Huntington Park official, lying to FBI.

An owner of a Huntington Park tow truck company was indicted Friday on charges he tried to bribe one of the city’s elected officials and then lied to FBI agents.

A federal grand jury indicted Sukhbir Singh after an investigation that relied heavily on secret recordings the city official made while working as an informant for the FBI.

Prosecutors dropped their case against Singh’s business partner, Jimmy Sandhu, who had also been accused of bribery when the case was filed late last year.

Singh is accused of offering to give campaign contributions to a member of the Huntington Park City Council in exchange for the councilman’s support in raising the company’s towing fees.

He is also charged with lying to FBI agents during an interview in which he denied ever speaking to the councilman about the fee increase, according to the indictment.

Singh’s attorney, Dan Shallman, responded angrily to the decision to pursue charges.

“This is a huge government overreach,” Shallman said. “The government is mistakenly seeking to criminalize lawful, constitutionally protected small- dollar campaign contributions, the kind that happen every day in America. Mr. Singh has been unfairly targeted, and we look forward to proving his innocence in court.”

The allegations are the latest to come out of a group of small, largely industrial and poor cities just south of Los Angeles, where low civic engagement by residents and political volatility have given rise to corruption and political deceit.

With elections in the heavily immigrant, mostly

Latino cities often decided by a small fraction of voters, special interests such as trash haulers or tow truck operators have tried to exploit the turmoil to sway votes in their favor.

The FBI opened its investigation into H. P. Automotive & Tow Service Inc. in the summer of 2013, shortly after City Councilman Valentin Amezquita helped defeat a measure that would have increased fees the company charged to tow and store vehicles impounded by Huntington Park police.

Details of the investigation are contained in an affidavit written by the lead FBI agent in the investigation. In it, the agent does not name Amezquita. The Times identified him as the informant through City Council voting records.

Amezquita had several meetings and conversations with Singh, who was sometimes accompanied by Sandhu. Each time, the councilman wore recording equipment while FBI agents hid nearby.

At one meeting at their tow yard, according to the aff idavit, Singh and Sandhu complained that their contract with the city forbade them from raising rates on their own and told the councilman that if he helped them, they could return the favor, the court filings allege.

“If you have any debts after the election, we can help you to take care of that,” Singh said to Amezquita, referring to the official’s reelection campaign, according to the affidavit.

To avoid raising suspicion, Singh and Sandhu said, they would raise money from friends, according to the FBI agent’s affidavit.

“This way it doesn’t look like you are doing a favor for H. P. Tow, you know, so it will keep us out of the loop,” Singh is quoted as saying.

It is not clear how Amez- quita came to be an informant.

In all, the FBI agent alleged in the affidavit, the councilman received checks totaling $ 2,650, although banks refused to cash a few checks totaling $ 800 for various reasons, including one that bounced. Whenever the councilman received checks from the men he cashed them with the FBI agent, who then took the cash into evidence.

In January 2014, the council voted again and approved the higher fees with two other council members who had previously opposed the motion supporting it. Amezquita was absent from the meeting.

Shallman denied that Singh, 39, had been trying to buy the councilman’s vote, saying it was Amezquita who suggested and kept pursuing the idea of a quid pro quo. The case, he said, amounted to “an unsuccessful attempt by the government to entrap” Singh.

A spokesman for U. S. Atty. Eileen Decker declined to respond to the allegation of entrapment.

In a statement Decker said: “By seeking to inf luence a City Council vote through bribes, this defendant perverted the democratic process. The public deserves to be confident that its elected officials are making decisions in the best interests of the people they serve.”

For decades, the company, known as H. P. Tow, has contracted with Huntington Park, city officials said. Singh and Sandhu have owned the company since 2001, the affidavit showed.

Since the investigation into H. P. Tow became public, at least four cities and law enforcement agencies have dropped or suspended their contracts with the company.