With $122.5 million in possible fines and restitution in the Beaumont corruption case, prosecutors are trying to secure the homes and bank accounts of some defendants – former top city officials charged with embezzlement and misappropriation of funds.
Among the properties put on temporary ice this week are two million-dollar homes, one in Mendocino and one in Cardiff By The Sea, nestled just blocks from the Pacific Ocean.
Superior Court Judge Becky Dugan granted a temporary restraining order to keep 14 homes and nearly 70 bank, savings, IRA, and investment accounts associated with six of the seven defendants from being transferred, encumbered or disposed, pending a hearing.
The district attorney’s motion for the order is based on a section of the state’s white collar crime law that allows prosecutors to put those assets on hold for possible restitution or payment of fines if there are convictions.
The former city officials were charged Tuesday, May 17, with misappropriating nearly $43 million from Beaumont over two decades in a case outlined in 94 felony charges.
In seeking to protect the homes and bank accounts from transfer, prosecutors calculate that the defendants may be liable for $36.6 million in victim restitution and for fines that could reach nearly $86 million.
“The total amount the Defendants are liable to pay in this case is $122, 541,033.80, which includes fines and victim restitution,” the district attorney’s office said in its bid for the temporary restraining order.
“This amount exceeds the total value of the assets subject to the Temporary Restraining Order sought in this matter,” district attorney senior investigator Doug Doyle said in his declaration. In other words, it still won’t be enough.
A declaration in which a specialized real estate investigator made a forensic review of the properties included outstanding loan amounts due, which appeared to affect the recovery value of some homes.
But former Beaumont planning director Ernest Egger’s Mar Vista Drive home near the ocean in Mendocino wasn’t one of those – it was estimated at more than $1 million in value. It was one of three homes Egger has in Mendocino, plus a South Lake Tahoe cabin valued at half a million dollars.
Down the coast at Cardiff by the Sea, former Beaumont economic development director David Dillon’s home also went over the $1 million mark. Dillon also has two homes in Temecula, according to court papers.
Former Beaumont public works director Deepak Moorjani’s Irvine home comes close at $998,833. He also has two others in Orange County and one in Beaumont, as well as the most bank accounts targeted, 33.
Also targeted were the homes of former city attorney Joseph Aklufi, former finance director William Aylward and former city manager Alan Kapanicas.
There was no effort to freeze the home or bank accounts of former police Chief Francis Dennis “Frank” Coe, charged with two counts of misappropriation of funds and one count of conspiracy.
Dugan’s ruling calls for defendants to respond no later than June 17 and the district attorney to reply to those papers no later than June 24.