San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Ex-parole officer going to prison for bribes
A former state parole officer in San Francisco will spend six months in prison after pleading guilty to passing $20,000 in bribes to former Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru to convince Nuru to hire an engineer, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
Ken Hong Wong, 58, had hoped to avoid jail time, but U.S. District Judge William Orrick rebuffed that request. He noted that Wong’s criminal acts “tarnished” a lengthy and distinguished history of public service.
“It’s one of the sleaziest and lowest things that somebody could do,” Orrick said, as he handed down his sentence. “I’m trying to understand why. … It was more than stupid and dumb. Yes, it was corrupt. It was morally bankrupt.”
Nuru was San Francisco’s Public Works director from 2011 until his arrest in 2020 on charges of accepting bribes to influence his decisions, including payments of $150,000 a year from the city’s garbage collector, Recology, whose rates were overseen by his office. He was sentenced to seven years in prison.
The ensuing federal corruption probe has led to charges against more than 20 businessmen,
engineers, bureaucrats and developers, along with the people who enabled them.
Wong was a parole officer from 1987 until his retirement in 2015. His attorney, Steven Gruel, had noted in his sentencing memo Wong’s many awards and commendations from San Francisco mayors, and support from
other local luminaries, including state Treasurer Fiona Ma, San Francisco Police Commissioner Larry Yee and others.
Gruel had argued that Wong’s crime was not as severe as others wrapped up in the scandal, and noted he began cooperating with federal investigators immediately after they contacted him.
He’d argued that there was “no real need” to punish Wong with incarceration, and that it would not accomplish anything.
In his agreement pleading guilty to charges of bribery and conspiracy, Wong acknowledged that he received $10,000 after passing Nuru a series of cash payments totaling $20,000 to help a woman get hired at Public Works in 2019. The employee lasted only a few weeks before she left the city job. She has not been charged.
In court, Wong elaborated on the crime, saying Nuru told him, “Ken, I don’t know these people. You’ve got to give me this money yourself.”
He said that the woman had needed a job to be able to continue to live in the United States. He said he had received the money after she obtained the job but that he had not sought compensation.
“I feel so ashamed, so bad,” he told Orrick. “I feel like a piece of sand on the floor.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Ward argued that Wong’s crime had more severe implications than a single $10,000 payout and pushed back on arguments that Wong had been little more than a bag man.
“I disagree that Mr. Wong was simply a bag man or a go-between,” he said. “He was a facilitator, and he received his cut for the crime. … The message it sends to the public, that jobs are for sale, that public jobs are for sale, is a horrible message and undermines faith in local government and undermines faith in state institutions.”