By: Renee Schiavone (Patch Staff)| Original Article at Patch.com
Officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Riverside County District Attorney’s office swarmed into the normally-quiet town of Beaumont Wednesday morning, as they served multiple search warrants apparently in relation to the workings at city hall.
More than a dozen federal agents helped to serve warrants at locations throughout town, including the Beaumont Civic Center, according to FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller. She said the agents started serving warrants at around 7 a.m., to assist the DA‘s office.
“I can confirm that warrants have been served as part of an ongoing investigation,” Riverside County District Attorney’s spokesman John Hall told Patch via email. “Search warrants have been served at both Beaumont City Hall and the Urban Logic office.“
Authorities remain tight-lipped as to the reason for the searches. However, Beaumont has long-been accused by community activists of illegally giving funds to the consulting group Urban Logic, to the tune of tens of millions of dollars. The city has denied any wrongdoing in the past, and would not comment on Wednesday’s search.
By 1 p.m., a U-Haul truck full of boxes with paperwork and computers was loaded up and driven away by authorities from the Urban Logic office building located off Fourth Street and Minnesota. City Hall was closed to the public in the morning, but reopened by 2 p.m.
Elsewhere in the county, the FBI and DA’s office later took their search to Temecula and Palm Desert in connection to this case, according to Hall.
“Search warrants were also served at locations in Palm Desert and Temecula subsequent to this investigation,” Hall told Patch. “My understanding is that those locations were residences.”
No arrests have been made as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Hall.
“The investigation is being conducted by the Riverside County DA’s Office and the FBI,” Hall added. “Because this is an ongoing investigation, I will have no further comment at this time.”
Urban Logic has worked with the city of Beaumont for several years as a consultant.