A Democrat Los Angeles City Councilman has been charged with corruption for embezzling $800,000.
Councilmember Curren Price originally received five embezzlement charges in 2023, as well as three felony counts of perjury and two felony counts of conflict of interest.
“Embezzling public funds and awarding contracts for your own financial gain is the antithesis of public service,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said in a statement. “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.”
According to a release from Hochman’s office, the ten felony counts allege that Del Richardson & Associates, a company owned 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.” Price has also been accused of embezzling an estimated $33,800 in city funds between 2013 and 2017 to pay for medical benefits for his wife, whom he falsely claimed he was married to while being legally married to Lynn Suzette Price.
“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,” the district attorney’s office adds. “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.”
If convicted as charged, the councilman faces up to 11 years and four months in custody, including “up to nine years and four months in state prison and up to two years in county jail.”
