Nancy Pelosi‘s son is embroiled in an FBI investigation into a San Francisco official who was allegedly bribed to turn a blind eye to a corrupt real estate plot.
Paul Pelosi Jr. and at least three of his associates were interviewed by agents in a five-year investigation that resulted in an indictment of a prolific building permit fixer for allegedly bribing a city official.
The bribery scheme included an alleged plan to remove permit violations on a squalid flop house owned by Pelosi Jr.’s girlfriend.
Earlier this month a DailyMail.com investigation revealed Pelosi Jr., 53, has been linked to five previous federal probes. This ongoing criminal case is the sixth.
San Francisco permit expediter Rodrigo Santos, a former president of the San Francisco Building Inspection Commission, was indicted for fraud in November.
Prosecutors claim he arranged for his clients to donate thousands of dollars to building inspector Bernie Curran’s favorite non-profit – a rugby club – in exchange for city permits.
Curran and Santos deny wrongdoing. They are next due in court on February 4.
Paul Pelosi Jr. (pictured with ex-girlfriend Karena Feng) was involved in an FBI investigation into an alleged bribery plot by two San Francisco officials who are accused of taking money in exchange for turning a blind eye to violations at a property owned by Feng
Paul Pelosi Jr. was with his mother, House Nancy Pelosi in the East Room of the White House for a visit of thee 2015 NBA champion Golden State Warriors. They are pictured with Stephen Curry
San Francisco permit expediter Rodrigo Santos, a former president of the San Francisco Building Inspection Commission, is alleged to have arranged for his clients to donate thousands of dollars to building inspector Bernie Curran’s non-profit in exchange for permits. He was indicted for fraud in November
Court documents reveal a client, identified only as ‘Client 9’, donated money to encourage Curran to remove violation notices against this squalid Mission District ‘hotel’ – linked to Pelosi Jr. and his ex-girlfriend
One of Santos’s clients, named only as ‘Client 9’ in the FBI documents, wrote the Golden Gate Youth Rugby Association a check for $1,500 to encourage Curran to remove violation notices against a squalid Mission District ‘hotel’ – known among building inspectors as ‘The Pit’ – which had a long history of dangerous permit violations, according to text messages obtained by the feds.
Though prosecutors did not name Santos’s clients, Pelosi Jr. was reportedly trying to get permits and remedy code violations for the troubled ‘residential hotel’ at 1312 Utah Street at the time – suggesting that he could be the mysterious Client 9, and placing him at the center of a public official bribery scandal.
FBI agents interviewed and subpoenaed Pelosi Jr.’s associates including his ex-girlfriend, the building’s one-time owner, her lawyer, and a consultant in a sale of the grim 17-room hovel.
All four said the agents asked questions about Pelosi Jr. and his involvement in the property.
Nancy’s son himself admitted he was ‘helping remove the citations from the property’ in an interview with a local government agency worker who wrote up the statements in a February 2019 report obtained by DailyMail.com.
Pelosi Jr.’s involvement matches the description of Client 9 in prosecutor’s files as ‘an individual working on behalf of the owners of the property’.
He did not respond to DailyMail.com’s requests for comment.
San Francisco building inspector Bernie Curran (far right) told DailyMail.com that Santos introduced him to Pelosi Jr. in the Department of Building Inspection offices but claimed he knew nothing about Santos’s alleged scheme
A federal criminal complaint details alleged text messages from Santos telling Client 9, to drop off a check to the sports club. Client 9 then replies: ‘With pleasure’
The documents included a picture of another check from one of Santos’ clients, named only as ‘Client 8’, for $500 written to Curran’s favorite charity. Prosecutors did not include a picture of Client 9’s alleged $1,500 check in the charging documents
The federal criminal complaint against Curran and Santos details alleged text messages between the permit fixer and Client 9, appearing to discuss the bribery scheme with shocking candor.
‘I will forward the address to Curran. He will abate it,’ Santos, 63, allegedly wrote to his client.
‘Please drop off a check payable to Golden Gate Youth [Rugby] Association for $1k. Bernie’s nonprofit.’
‘With pleasure,’ Client 9 replied, and later sent Santos a picture of a $1,500 check with the message: ‘made the donation and it is being sent today.’
It is unclear why Client 9 wrote a check for $1,500 instead of $1,000 as allegedly requested by Santos in the text messages.
The check was never deposited by the club, and prosecutors have not accused it of any wrongdoing.
Curran, 61, told DailyMail.com that Santos introduced him to Pelosi Jr. in the Department of Building Inspection offices, telling Curran that Pelosi Jr. was a friend with whom he went jogging.
The recently fired building inspector is livid, claiming he knew nothing about Santos’s alleged scheme or checks to charities and said he has acted professionally and ethically his whole 40-year career.
An anonymous building inspector claimed in an interview with San Francisco news site Mission Local that in 2018 Pelosi Jr. met with him several times and was trying to ‘get rid of Notices of Violation’ on 1312 Utah Street.
Santos’s clients were not named in documents, but Pelosi Jr. was reportedly trying to get permits and remedy code violations for the troubled building at 1312 Utah Street at the time – suggesting that could be the mysterious Client 9
The property was known to have a long history of dangerous permit violations, according to documents
Another ex-girlfriend of Pelosi Jr., Nicole Bulick, 46, told DailyMail.com that he has been quizzed about his involvement in the troubled Utah Street property (pictured) by the FBI multiple times
‘What he was looking for was how to get rid of Notices of Violation – or get them taken care of,’ the unidentified DBI inspector told the site, and allegedly provided a text message exchange with Pelosi Jr. as evidence.
‘He was never overt with me on how to take care of this,’ he continued.
‘I was like, hey, if he wants to take me there, I could say, ‘fix this, do this’ — that’s what I do. But he would never go to the property.
‘The things I was telling him were pretty straightforward. But he would never go there.’
Another ex-girlfriend of Pelosi Jr., Nicole Bulick, 46, told DailyMail.com that the FBI’s interest in his involvement in the troubled Utah Street flop house began in 2017, and that he was interviewed three times.
‘Paul’s been under FBI investigation like three times over this,’ she said. ‘Maybe in the summer of 2017.
‘The FBI looked at this for almost two years. They called me too… He went and spoke with the FBI three times.’
Pelosi Jr.’s business associate Naveen Singha, who acted as a consultant for him on the sale of 1312 Utah Street, also said he was interviewed by federal agents about the Speaker’s son around May 2019.
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Photos included in court filings show the poor conditions inside the run down hotel
The grim 17-room hovel was known among building inspectors as ‘The Pit’
Pelosi Jr.’s links to 1312 Utah Street date back decades, to when the ground floor was the site for a massage therapy and herbal medicine clinic, run by Feng’s father
‘They showed up at my warehouse and said ‘tell us about this guy.’ They were good-looking, they reminded me of Agents Mulder and Scully from the X-Files,’ Singha said.
‘They were looking at Paul regarding the Utah Street property.’
Emails obtained by DailyMail.com show Singha was given a subpoena by the agents and shared documents with them about the slum hotel building.
Pelosi Jr.’s business associate Naveen Singha, who acted as a consultant for him on the sale of 1312 Utah Street, also said he was interviewed by federal agents about the Speaker’s son around May 2019
The former owner of the property, Karena Apple Feng, said she was interviewed by the same agents over several months, about 1312 Utah Street and Paul Pelosi Jr.’s involvement.
Special Agent Jason Richards, who has previously been involved in federal busts on mortgage fraud, emailed Feng, 46, in February 2019 asking for her location.
Feng’s Oakland-based lawyer, Kevin Martin, wrote to her a month earlier saying ‘two FBI agents came by my office yesterday asking for details and information about the Utah property transaction. They presented me with a subpoena directed to you at my care seeking the relative documents.’
The subpoena asks for ‘any and all records regarding property located at 2601 24th Avenue,’ an alternate address for the building on the corner of Utah Street and 24th Avenue.
Pelosi Jr.’s links to the troubled Utah Street property date back decades, to when the ground floor was the site for a massage therapy and herbal medicine clinic, run by Feng’s father.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, he, his father Paul Pelosi Sr. and even Nancy on occasion would frequent the clinic for foot massages.
Paul Pelosi Jr. (pictured with his cousin, California Governor Gavin Newsom, in 2009) is noted as the listing agent on a July 2015 contract for the $4million sale of the building by Feng to a company called West Edge Halo, Inc
Emails show Feng’s Oakland-based lawyer, Kevin Martin, emailed Feng in 2019 to inform her two FBI agents were looking to speak to her about the Utah Street property
Pelosi Jr. claimed in an August 2016 email to Feng that he owned 20 per cent of a company which held the property, Feng RE Inc, contradicting his claims that he never had any stake
He appears to have become financially involved in the property in the last seven years.
The House Speaker’s son is noted as the listing agent on a July 2015 contract for the $4million sale of the building by Feng to a company called West Edge Halo, Inc.
Pelosi Jr. claimed in an August 2016 email to Feng that he owned 20 per cent of a company which held the property, Feng RE Inc.
He was previously listed as chief financial officer of the firm in an April 2015 corporate filing, though no longer appears on company documents.
When asked about the property deal by Mission Local in 2018, Pelosi Jr. at first denied ever having held any stake in Feng RE.
‘It’s not my business,’ he told the website. ‘I never got paid. I never expected to get paid.’
When confronted with documents showing he had been an officer of the company, he reportedly changed his story to the site, claiming Feng gifted him 20 per cent equity in the building on his birthday but he refused the offer – contrary to his claims in his August 2016 email to Feng.
Feng claimed in a 2019 lawsuit that Pelosi Jr. had defrauded her and helped West Edge Halo steal her property. The lawsuit was ultimately dismissed when the court held that Feng lacked standing to bring the suit.
The defendants deny the claims, but the Utah Street buyers’ history may have raised eyebrows in the San Francisco FBI office.
West Edge Halo was represented by lawyer David Lonich – who was convicted in December 2017 and sentenced to six years in prison and $19.2million in restitution for bank fraud, wire fraud, attempted obstruction of justice, and other offenses in an unrelated case.
A former Utah Street property manager told DailyMail.com that the building was a hub for drug-taking and prostitution, crawling with ‘rats, roaches and lice’
Nancy Pelosi’s son, Paul Pelosi Jr. has been linked to a host of fraudsters, rule-breakers and convicted criminals. His mother (pictured with husband Paul Pelosi and her son in 2012) once pledged to lead ‘the most honest, most open, most ethical Congress in history’
He was released on compassionate health grounds in April 2021.
West Edge’s realtor, who was later involved in managing the property, was Bill Garlock. In July 2016, a bankruptcy court ruled that Garlock had been ‘defrauding plaintiffs through false representations’ in one of his commercial property deals and had lied to his investors.
The realtor is infamous among some of his former clients, who set up a website dedicated to detailing claims of his alleged bilking of investors in his past property deals.
Feng’s case against them was dismissed in 2020 when the judge ruled Feng could not sue personally but instead should sue on behalf of her company, Feng RE. She has failed to do so to date.
Pelosi Jr. appears to have been involved in the property even after Feng sold it.
Former Utah Street property manager Katherine Fuentes, who said she moved to the building in January 2017, revealed she would sometimes see Pelosi Jr. visit the property and show it to potential buyers.
‘Paul was one of the investors,’ she said. ‘They’d come and look at the building, he was showing them around.’
Fuentes said she saw him on the building’s CCTV around 2018.
She told DailyMail.com that while she was there the building was a hub for drug-taking and prostitution, crawling with ‘rats, roaches and lice’, had trash piling up outside due to unpaid city bills, and at times had just one working bathroom shared by dozens of tenants.
‘It needed condemning,’ she said.
Feng’s original sale contract with West Edge Halo said she would retain partial ownership worth $3.05million minus two outstanding mortgages on the property.
West Edge sued her in 2016 when she failed to follow through on the sale, but settled with her in 2017.
It is unclear what ownership, if any, she or Pelosi Jr. retained in the property.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
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