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CD-ROM Aktief 1995 #3
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1994-02-22
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SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS
Copyright 1991, San Jose Mercury News
DATE: Tuesday, December 17, 1991
PAGE: 1A EDITION: Morning Final
SECTION: Front LENGTH: 25 in. Medium
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
SOURCE: By GARY WEBB, Mercury News Sacramento Bureau
DATELINE: Sacramento
AFTER GUILTY PLEA, ROBBINS IMPLICATES OTHERS IN
SCHEMES
Former state Sen. Alan Robbins pleaded guilty to racketeering and tax
fraud Monday and immediately began his new career as an informant by publicly
implicating a member of the Coastal Commission, an insurance company
president, a former state senator, and Sacramento's most powerful lobbyist.
In a halting, barely audible voice, Robbins described how he cheated,
lied and took payoffs from special interests during his 18-year reign as one
of the Senate's pre-eminent deal makers.
Afterward, standing in the cold and fog outside the federal courthouse
where he entered his plea, Robbins said he felt ''unburdened.''
''I don't have to lie anymore,'' he said. ''I don't have to worry about
covering things up. People can't make threats on me anymore.''
Judging from the five-page statement Robbins read during his guilty plea,
however, it may be time for others to start worrying:
(check) California Coastal Commissioner Mark L. Nathanson was identified
by Robbins as having been part of a scheme to extort $250,000 from a San
Diego developer who wanted a competitor's development killed by the
commission. ''Nathanson and I agreed that I would get a portion of the
$250,000 payment, and we ultimately split the monies received,'' Robbins
said.
Robbins, D-Van Nuys, said $50,000 of the bribe money was sent to a
now-bankrupt Los Angeles law firm which represented Nathanson and said he
gave the commissioner money directly.
Nathanson -- an appointee and close political ally of Assembly Speaker
Willie Brown, D-San Francisco -- could not be reached for comment. U.S.
Attorney George O'Connell said the developer, Jack Naiman, was cooperating
with federal investigators and would not be charged.
(check) Sacramento lobbyist Clayton R. Jackson, who represents such
heavyweights as NCR Corp., Anheuser-Busch and B.F. Goodrich, was accused by
Robbins of setting up and laundering bribes for several deeds undertaken at
Jackson's behest.
In 1986, Robbins said, Jackson arranged for him to receive $13,500 in
campaign contributions from G-Tech, a Rhode Island lottery company, after
Robbins worked to kill a lottery ticket printing bill that would have
benefited one of G-Tech's competitors.
Part of the deal, Robbins said, also involved Jackson arranging G-Tech
contributions for ''the Senate leadership.'' Neither Robbins nor O'Connell
would elaborate on that point. Robbins said Jackson told him later that he
had arranged for the bill to die on the Senate floor.
Robert Forsyth, a spokesman for Senate President Pro Tem
David*Roberti,*D-Los Angeles, said Senate Democrats received $110,500 from
G-Tech during that time period, with*Roberti* collecting $7,000. Senate
Republicans got $45,000, with $10,000 of that going to Republican Leader Ken
Maddy, R-Fresno.
''Only Alan presumably knows which of those involved a quid pro quo,''
Forsyth said.
Jackson, whose lobbying offices were searched by the FBI in November, was
also accused by Robbins of facilitating a $4,000 bribe from a group of
convenience store owners for his work against a bill cracking down on liquor
sales by gas stations.
O'Connell declined comment when asked if Jackson was facing charges, but
said there was ''a meeting of the minds'' between Jackson and Robbins on the
payoffs. Jackson was out of town and could not be reached for comment.
(check) Ron Gordon, identified by Robbins as the president of Sentinel
Insurance Co., was accused by Robbins of paying $12,000 in bribes in 1986 for
Robbins' work on a bill deregulating credit life insurance. Robbins said
Gordon funneled the money to him through a public relations firm, The Goddard
Co. in Santa Monica, which was run by a former Robbins aide, Jennifer
Goddard.
''Jennifer Goddard . . . issued checks from the money Gordon paid, at my
direction for my direct and indirect benefit,'' Robbins said.
Gordon could not be reached for comment. O'Connell said Goddard is now
cooperating with federal investigators and would not be charged. Robbins also
admitted trying to persuade Goddard to lie to federal agents and destroy
evidence of the payoffs.
(check) Former Sen. Paul Carpenter, who was convicted in an earlier
Capitol*corruption*trial, served as a conduit for $27,500 in bribes from
lobbyist Jackson and his clients, Robbins said. Robbins said Carpenter's
campaign committee collected the money from Jackson's clients, then cut a
check to the Goddard public relations firm ''for my benefit,'' Robbins said.
Robbins also admitted pocketing $5,300 of his own campaign money by
sending it from his campaign committee to an