In yet more absolutely massive news regarding Democrats being caught in major corruption scandals of the sort that Republicans have long alleged are going on, a city councilmember in the far-left city of Los Angeles has been caught in a multimillion-dollar fraud scandal involving hundreds of thousands of dollars funneled to his wife and millions of dollars in city contracts.
Such is what the LA County District Attorney’s office noted in a mid-August press statement, describing the fraud that the city councilmember, Curren Price, allegedly committed and the big punishment in store for his massive corruption scandal involving everything from embezzled funds to conflicts of interest.
Beginning, the statement said, “The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office has filed two new public corruption charges against Los Angeles City Councilmember Curren Price after uncovering evidence that the city’s housing authority and LA Metro paid Price’s wife more than $800,000 total at the same time Price voted to award the agencies multimillion-dollar contracts.”
Continuing, it explained how the city councilmember had represented the same district for well over a decade, and while he was in that role, he engaged in corruption. It said, “Curren De Mille Price Jr. has been the Los Angeles City Councilmember for the Ninth District since 2013. Like all other councilmembers, he is prohibited from having a financial interest associated with any project that comes before the City Council.” It then added that now he faces, “five felony counts of embezzlement of government funds, three felony counts of perjury and two felony counts of conflict of interest.”
Explaining what is alleged to have happened, digging into the details of the scandal, it added, “The 10 felony counts allege that Del Richardson & Associates, a company owned solely by Price’s wife, Delbra Pettice Richardson, received payments totaling more than $150,000 between 2019 and 2021 from developers before he voted to approve projects.”
Building on that, and noting that he was originally released in 2023 after pleading not guilty, the statement provided, “Price is also accused of embezzling approximately $33,800 in city funds from 2013-2017 to pay for medical benefits for Richardson, who he falsely claimed was his wife while still legally married to Lynn Suzette Price. Price pleaded not guilty to these charges on Dec. 15, 2023. He was released on his own recognizance.”
But that’s where things got more interesting: after Price was released, investigators kept digging and found that much, much more “evidence of public corruption” existed, with Price having bilked the city out of hundreds of thousands of dollars in exchange for millions of dollars in funding for the corrupt agency.
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It provided, “Between Oct. 22, 2019, and June 30, 2020, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles allegedly paid Del Richardson & Associates approximately $609,600. During this time, Price voted to support a $35 million federal grant and a state grant application for $252 million for the agency.” It further noted, “Between Oct. 27, 2020, and Oct. 20, 2021, LA Metro paid Del Richardson & Associates approximately $219,500. During this time, Price brought and voted in favor of a motion to award $30 million to LA Metro.”
There was yet more corruption he engaged in, as the statement went on to note, saying, “It is further alleged that Price took advantage of his position in city government to award city lease agreements and over $2 million in federal COVID-19 grants to the nonprofit Home at Last. Home at Last was a paying tenant of the Urban Healthcare Project at the time of the votes. Price served as CEO of Urban Healthcare Project during the time of these votes. These funds were intended for homelessness efforts.”
Price now faces a maximum of 11 years in prison for the corruption scandal. Commenting on it, Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan J. Hochman said, “Embezzling public funds and awarding contracts for your own financial gain is the antithesis of public service. Our communities expect and deserve better from their public officials. I thank our investigative team and prosecutors in the Public Integrity Division for diligently pursuing every lead and holding elected officials accountable. Self-dealing and pay-to-play politics will not be tolerated in Los Angeles County.”
Featured image credit: By Luke Harold – Los Angeles City Councilman Curren Price speaks at South L.A. rally to end gun violence, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=118456554