former DWP general manager David Wright to plead guilty to a federal bribery charge
DWP criminal charges: now streaming!
And now the former head of the Department of Water & Power, David Wright, will plead guilty to bribery, federal prosecutors announced this evening. This is now the first government official, and second figure overall, to face criminal charges regarding the DWP mess.
Wright’s guilty plea pertains to taking bribes from Paul O. Paradis, the former special counsel hired by City Attorney Mike Feuer. Paradis agreed to plead guilty last week to bribery as well. And Wright apparently referred to Paradis as his “ATM,” the government said.
Prosecutors said that in exchange for Wright pushing Paradis’ $30 million, no-bid contract before the DWP board, Wright had also agreed to take a job with that company, Aventador Utility Solutions, upon retiring from DWP, along with an annual $1 million salary and a brand new Mercedes. Wright has also admitted that he destroyed evidence with the intent to obstruct the federal investigation.
Wright is expected to make his initial appearance in this case on December 10. Paradis on the 16th. Wright served as LADWP’s general manager, the biggest pubic utility in the country, from 2016 until July 2019, when he resigned at the direction of the mayor of Los Angeles and pleaded the 5th after being asked about the contracts. A day before, the FBI raided his office.
Soon after Wright became general manager, he developed a relationship with Paradis, who was also handling the DWP overbilling litigation for the city of LA. Part of Paradis’ guilty plea relates to him admitting that he took an illegal kickback of $2.1 million as part of the sham DWP billing lawsuit.
By early 2017, Wright lobbied members of the LADWP board of directors to persuade them to vote in favor of the contact for Aventador, which was literally named after a sports car fetish the two apparently shared, according to the government.
Wright also drafted a letter to the LADWP board selling the contract, and he enlisted the help of LADWP employees, including other senior executives, to support the Aventador contract, according to federal prosecutors.
In one of his board presentations, Wright cited a report from a court-appointed independent monitor overseeing the DWP settlement and “warned that LADWP could not meet its court-ordered obligations unless it contracted with Aventador,” prosecutors said.
However, Wright did not tell the LADWP board that the independent monitor’s report had been secretly ghostwritten by Paradis, prosecutors said. Further, Wright did not disclose that he had also agreed to taking in a $1 million salary as CEO of Aventador, according to prosecutors.
“At the time it approved the $30 million no-bid contract in June 2017, the LADWP board was also not informed of Wright’s agreement with Paradis to take a lucrative job as Aventador’s CEO upon retiring from LADWP,” the U.S. Attorney’s office stated.
Some new details have also emerged from the government’s criminal investigation, including that Paradis narc’d on Wright.
Wright directed Paradis to draft the LADWP settlement agreement in a way that would create future business opportunities for the company. The government said Wright told Paradis to do “the minimal possible” with respect to the LADWP billing system upgrade so Wright wouldn’t have to deal with it during his tenure.
Paradis kept conspiring with Wright into spring of 2019, after Paradis had resigned from working for the city. But by then Paradis was cooperating with the FBI, and he met with Wright at his home, where the government said Wright directed Paradis to destroy their incriminating text messages and emails from Wright’s phone and iCloud account. He also wanted an Aventador laptop wiped clean, the government said.
“Wright told Paradis that he had already gone through his office at LADWP and destroyed all incriminating physical evidence,” said the government.
But they still wanted to continue their bro-mance:
“At this meeting, Wright also told Paradis that he still wanted to continue their secret plans, stating that he felt that his future had been “resurrected” by the opportunity to further their corrupt scheme,” the government said.
And at this point it just reads like a bad spy novel:
“Due to Wright’s fears that their corrupt communications would be detected, they orchestrated a clandestine dead-drop maneuver for Paradis to deliver Wright’s wiped cell phone and a “burner” cell phone for Wright’s use so that they could communicate in secret.,” according to the government.
But it didn’t stop there.
In April 2019, Wright used his position to urge the LADWP board to support the award of a new cybersecurity contract to Ardent for more than $10 million. Wright again did not inform the board of his secret arrangement with Paradis, which by then included their agreement that Wright would receive a “substantial sign-on bonus” of $600,000 or $1.2 million, as well as an increase in his ownership of their company, in addition to a previously agreed-to $1 million annual salary and luxury car.
Then in May 2019, Wright suggested to Paradis that he remain in his role as LADWP general manager for a few more months so he could help ensure that Ardent secured yet another contract from the department.
“Understanding that he could not legally receive payment from Ardent while he was still employed by LADWP, Wright suggested that he could secretly begin working for Ardent before his retirement and then later be compensated by ‘some retroactive money’ for those services. In proposing this illicit payment arrangement, Wright referred to Paradis as his ‘ATM,’” said the government.
Some more details:
At one point due to the bad publicity surrounding the contracts, an agreement was to make yet another company, which Wright and Paradis referred to as “Newco,” to replace Aventador and Ardent.
Wright further admitted that he lied to federal investigators in June 2019 when he told them that he did not have any financial or business interest – including future interests – in any company in which Paradis was associated.
At one point Wright and Paradis traveled overseas to bring a global cyber security company to LA.
“They further agreed that Wright would use his position and influence as general manager to convince the LADWP Board to authorize the department’s purchase of $15 million in services from their Cyber Company franchise, which secretly would benefit both Wright and Paradis financially,” said the government.
The FBI said it is investigating this matter. It is asking any member of the public who has information related to this or any other public corruption matter in the City of Los Angeles to send information to the FBI’s email tip line at pctips-losangeles@fbi.gov or to contact the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office at (310) 477-6565.