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Former L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas Charged On Federal Grand Jury Indictment Alleging USC Bribery and Fraud Scheme

Los Angeles City Councilmember Mark Ridley-Thomas, who has served as an L.A. County Supervisor, State Senator, and State Assemblyman, was indicted earlier this week on federal corruption charges for an alleged bribery scheme involving a USC dean.

The Federal indictment alleges that the alleged bribery scheme ensured that a relative of Ridley-Thomas received substantial benefits from the university in exchange for Ridley-Thomas supporting county contracts and lucrative contract amendments with the university while he served on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

“This indictment charges a seasoned lawmaker who allegedly abused the public’s trust by taking official actions to benefit his family member and himself,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Tracy L. Wilkison. “The corrupt activities alleged in the indictment were facilitated by a major university’s high-ranking administrator whose desire for funding apparently trumped notions of integrity and fair play. Public corruption cases are among the most important matters we pursue, and we will continue to investigate and prosecute whenever public officials and others entrusted with taxpayer funds break the law.”

The 20-count indictment alleges that 66-year-old Ridley-Thomas, now once again a member of the Los Angeles City Council, conspired with Marilyn Louise Flynn, formerly a tenured professor and the dean of the university’s School of Social Work, who agreed to provide the Ridley-Thomas’ relative with graduate school admission, a full-tuition scholarship, a paid professorship, and a mechanism to funnel Ridley-Thomas campaign funds through the university to a non-profit to be operated by the relative.

Although Ridley-Thomas’ relative is not officially identified, the indictment states that the person “was a close relative of defendant Ridley-Thomas and a member of the California State Assembly from approximately 2013 to on or about December 31, 2017” and in the fall of 2017, “was the subject of an internal sexual harassment investigation in the State Assembly.”

His son, former Assemblymember Sebastian Ridley-Thomas, matches the description provided in the indictment, and received the various benefits described as being due to the alleged scheme.

The indictment alleges that in exchange for these benefits, Mark Ridley-Thomas supported contracts involving the Social Work School, including contracts to provide services to the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and Probation Department, as well as an amendment to a contract with the Department of Mental Health (DMH) that would bring the school millions of dollars in new revenue.

Ridley-Thomas and Flynn, 83, both residents of Los Angeles, were informed of the indictment Wednesday afternoon and have agreed to appear for their arraignments in United States District Court in the coming weeks.

“This investigation should send a message to public officials that government contracts are not for sale,” said Kristi K. Johnson, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “This indictment reaffirms the FBI’s commitment to rooting out corruption by holding accountable those who abuse the trust of the people they serve and who exploit their powerful positions to obtain benefits at the expense of taxpayers.”

The indictment outlines a scheme in 2017 and 2018 in which then-supervisor Ridley-Thomas sought benefits from Flynn and university officials to benefit his son – described as “MRT Relative 1” in the indictment – when he was the subject of an internal sexual harassment investigation in the California State Assembly, likely to resign from elected office, and significantly in debt.

Ridley-Thomas allegedly wanted to help secure paid employment for his relative to minimize any public fallout for them both in the wake of the sudden resignation from office. Meanwhile, the Social Work School was facing a multimillion-dollar budget deficit, which threatened the school’s viability as well as Flynn’s position and reputation as the school’s longtime dean, according to the indictment.

As part of the bribery scheme, Ridley-Thomas and Flynn allegedly took steps “to disguise, conceal, and cover up the bribes, kickbacks, and other benefits defendant Ridley-Thomas and [Sebastian Ridley-Thomas] received,” which included concealing the official acts Mark Ridley-Thomas agreed to perform and did perform in exchange for the financial benefits.

The pair also concealed, according to the indictment, the true purpose of the money funneled to Ridley-Thomas’ son’s nonprofit through the university, which also violated multiple university policies regarding the funding of nonprofits.

Within weeks of Ridley-Thomas contacting Flynn in May 2017 about his son wanting a postgraduate degree from the university, Flynn began a campaign to secure both university admission and a full scholarship for the relative.

Flynn wrote in an email that she “intend[ed] to open every door for [Sebastian Ridley-Thomas],” whom she noted was closely related to the then-supervisor, the indictment alleges.

When a university official said Mark Ridley-Thomas had “lots of discretionary money” and should give the university “$1M each year for three years,” according to the indictment, Flynn responded that she and another university official intended to offer the relative a full scholarship, characterizing the exchange as a “full scholarship for our [Social Work School] funds.”

During a June 2017 meeting, Ridley-Thomas and Flynn allegedly reached a quid pro quo agreement, which Flynn later memorialized in a confidential letter she had hand-delivered to Ridley-Thomas. The indictment alleges that Flynn’s letter detailed her expectations that Ridley-Thomas would steer new contracts with DCFS and Probation to the Social Work School and secure a lucrative amendment to an existing Telehealth-DMH contract. With the new amendment, Flynn expected the Telehealth contract to generate approximately $9 million per year for Flynn’s Social Work School.

In exchange for Flynn’s efforts to help his son, the indictment alleges that Ridley-Thomas took a series of official actions, including voting in August 2017 to approve a motion to establish a partnership between the county and Social Work School and voting in October 2017 to approve a motion, related to “Probation University,” that would create a new county payment source for the school.

Flynn told university officials in emails that she was “very happy to see that [Ridley-Thomas] was as good as his word” and that he was “really trying to deliver,” the indictment alleges.

In the fall of 2017, Ridley-Thomas and his son began soliciting from Flynn and other university officials a paid professorship for the younger Ridley-Thoma, while concealing that the man was the subject of a sexual harassment investigation.

By December 2017, in conjunction with speculation that Sebastian could be forced out of office, Mark Ridley-Thomas and his son increased their efforts to secure a paid faculty position for the then-assemblyman, efforts that included Ridley-Thomas exerting pressure on another high-ranking public official to support the Telehealth contract amendment.

On Dec. 14, 2017, about an hour after Ridley-Thomas emailed Flynn saying the high-ranking public official was “ready to go,” Flynn expedited the relative’s enrollment at the university, instructing that the admission should be given the “highest priority,” according to the indictment. Flynn also agreed, despite the school’s multimillion-dollar budget deficit, to tap the Social Work School’s endowed funds to award a scholarship.

At Flynn’s direction, Sebastian Ridley-Thomas received a full scholarship worth $26,000 for the 2018 spring and summer terms.

The day after learning that the high-ranking public official was “ready to go,” Flynn also endeavored to quickly secure the paid professorship, even though MRT Relative 1’s dual student-faculty status would violate university policy.

In addition to obtaining university admission, a full scholarship and the paid faculty position, Ridley-Thomas also sought to help his son become the director of a nonprofit.

After initial efforts failed, Ridley-Thomas’ son founded a new nonprofit — referred to as “Nonprofit B” and began raising money for Nonprofit B in order to take a salary, obtain healthcare benefits and hire staff.

According to the indictment, while soliciting official action from Ridley-Thomas during a meeting on April 26, 2018, Flynn agreed to funnel $100,000 from the Mark Ridley-Thomas Committee for a Better L.A. through the university and Social Work School to the main fiscal sponsor of the charity for the benefit of Nonprofit B and, in turn, Ridley-Thomas’ son.

Around this time, Flynn allegedly told a university official that the school would get the Telehealth contract but that she had to do a “favor” to get it.

After the Ridley-Thomas campaign funds were transferred through the university to Fiscal Sponsor B, Ridley-Thomas voted on July 31, 2018 in favor of the amendment to the school’s Telehealth agreement that would sustain the program for an additional year and was consistent with the terms Flynn previously requested of Ridley-Thomas.

Both Ridley-Thomas and Flynn have been charged with one count of conspiracy, and each defendant is charged with one count of bribery. The indictment also charges both defendants with two counts of “honest services” mail fraud and 15 counts of “honest services” wire fraud.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime.

Every defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. The conspiracy count alleged in the indictment carries a statutory maximum penalty of five years in federal prison. Each bribery count carries a maximum possible sentence of 10 years. Each of the mail fraud and wire fraud charges carry a statutory maximum penalty of 20 years.

The FBI is investigating this matter.

Assistant United States Attorneys Ruth C. Pinkel and Lindsey Greer Dotson of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section are prosecuting this case.


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Former L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas Charged On Federal Grand Jury Indictment Alleging USC Bribery and Fraud Scheme

4 comments

  1. II am sure the Feds have been working on this for a while. If he is guilty just another corrupt county employee (Lee Baca) that we pay their salary and they also get their palms greased. Greed, greed, greed, and power, power, power. Maybe he will go to the same Federal prison as Lee Baca in Texas if found guilty.

  2. A long time coming! Now the Hundreds of Thousands of $$$$ he spent/wasted on his office will be traded for the grey bar hotel——-maybe Bonin or the other POSs council scammers/fools will move into the luxury office so they can do their continued, caring, wonderful Hard Work for their taxpayers—-

  3. J- Find a better fraternity to join. Ha ha!!

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