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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 1988, San Jose Mercury News
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1988
PAGE: 1C EDITION: Morning Final
SECTION: California News LENGTH: 26 in. Long
ILLUSTRATION: Photo
SOURCE: Los Angeles Times
DATELINE: SACRAMENTO
MEMO: State News.
See related story page 1C this section.
FBI INFORMANT CALLED CAGEY INSIDER
For two years, John Shahabian led a double life.
To his friends and colleagues, he was a friendly, knowledgeable veteran
Senate staff member, a mentor to many of his co-workers and an
''entrepreneur'' with a variety of business dealings on the side.
To the FBI, Shahabian was a valuable undercover informant who played a
central role in a sting operation aimed at exposing*corruption*in the
Legislature. Often, as he went about his work, he wore a recording device
hidden in his clothes and helped federal agents amass a huge amount of audio
and videotaped evidence.
''I know John as well as anybody, and I'm stunned,'' said Senate
President Pro Tem David A.*Roberti,*who gave Shahabian his first legislative
job 14 years ago.
It is unclear how the 38-year-old consultant to the Senate Elections
Committee was drawn into the sting, but his attorney, Donald Heller, said
Shahabian himself was ''stung'' by federal agents.
For months, Shahabian, a devout member of the Armenian Apostolic Church,
confided only in his priest, Father Sassoon Zumrookhdian.
''He cooperated with the FBI because he felt that was the best way to
redeem himself,'' Zumrookhdian said. ''As his spiritual adviser, I would say
he was on the right path, that he was doing what his conscience was dictating
him to do.''
Shahabian has been in seclusion since Thursday, the day after 30 FBI
agents swooped down on the Capitol in a late-night raid on the offices of
four legislators: Assembly Republican Leader Patrick Nolan of Glendale; Sen.
Joseph B. Montoya, D- Whittier; Assemblyman Frank Hill, R-Whittier; and
Assemblywoman Gwen Moore, D-Los Angeles.
State Board of Equalization member Paul Carpenter, a former Democratic
senator from Cypress, is also a target of the probe, but his office was not
searched.
''God knows what else this is going to reveal,'' said Zumrookhdian, who
has talked regularly with Shahabian since the raid. ''I wouldn't be surprised
if more legislators are involved. . . . This is a challenge for the lawmakers
to clean their own house.''
Close friends, such as Los Angeles Councilman Mike Woo, describe
Shahabian as an intelligent and cagey political insider who was skilled at
analyzing policy questions and devising political strategy.
Shahabian was loyal to his friends and occasionally ''headstrong,'' some
of them said. They said he has a good sense of humor but had become cynical
about the legislative process.
Others describe Shahabian as something of a wheeler-dealer and a
political insider who helped to run one of the state's nastiest legislative
campaigns.
Even while cooperating with the FBI and carrying out his duties as a
committee consultant, Shahabian kept up with a variety of outside business
interests.
He runs his own firm, Shahabian and Associates, which does political
consulting for Woo and other clients. He is a co- owner of the Coffee Works,
a Sacramento coffee house. And he is a director of the State Assistance Fund
for Energy Business Industrial Development Corp., a company that provides
low- interest loans to small businesses.
''He's an entrepreneur,'' said Woo, who first met Shahabian 12 years ago
when the two worked together on*Roberti's*staff. ''He's extremely bright and
has acute political sensitivities. I never thought he would get himself
tangled up in something like this.''
At the end of last year, while the FBI was preparing to sponsor
legislation that would benefit a phony shrimp importing company, Zumrookhdian
invited Shahabian to become a member of the parish council at St. James
Armenian church.
Shahabian accepted, but only after confessing his involvement in the
secret sting operation and the turmoil that he expected it would unleash on
the Capitol this year.
''He wanted to confess and redeem himself,'' Zumrookhdian said. ''When
this whole thing came about, that was the moral choice he had to make, to
continue what he was doing in the past or stand up and face it as a brave
person and go on.''
While friends may not have seen the stress that Shahabian was under,
Zumrookhdian said he was well aware of the tremendous pressure he faced in
his undercover role.
''It wasn't easy,'' the priest said. ''Throughout the year we met
regularly and discussed it.''
Sometimes Shahabian was angry with the FBI about actions that they asked
him to undertake. ''There were times when, because he was a man of
principles, he would not do certain things that were against his principles
and morals,'' Zumrookhdian said. He declined to provide any details.
Shahabian's involvement in the sting and the revelation that