The DOJ has charged an unknown California legislator with soliciting and accepting up to $200,000 in bribery for a Baldwin Park politician's vote on the city's cannabis procedure, as THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER reported.

The individual in question is being called "Person 20" and it has been suggested that this person might be Senator Susan Rubio. Unnamed in the documents, "Person 20" is characterized as a public figure who had the power to fire the Baldwin Park city attorney from 2017 to 2018 and was a candidate for state office until November 2018, all of which pertain to Rubio.

In a recently released plea bargain, former municipal manager Robert Manual Nacionales Tafoya stated the unknown individual wanted $30,000 in cash contributions for their state campaign account. Tafoya said the person promised to preserve his employment and help him financially for the money.

A representative for Rubio told the Times that she “has no reason to believe that she would be included in any criminal actions.”

Cannabis Scheme and Other Officials

Baldwin Park City Council member Ricardo Pacheco accepted payments from marijuana permit applicants when the city began issuing marijuana permits in June 2017.

Former city manager, Edgar Pascual Cisneros bribed Pacheco $45,000 to get marijuana licenses and approvals for a company. The business also promised Cisneros $235,000 for help getting the permit.

Pacheco, a corrupt politician, admitted to coordinating bribery plots with Baldwin Park city attorney Tafoya and Gabriel Chavez, a former San Bernardino County planning commissioner who pled guilty to federal bribery in November 2022.

Tafoya, who admitted to avoiding $650,000 in federal taxes, facilitated Pacheco's bribery of former Compton City Councilmember Isaac Galvan.

Crime and Punishment

By bribing Pacheco, Galvan hoped to get a business a marijuana license.

Galvan and his consulting client Yichang Bai were apprehended by law enforcement in September 2023 on charges that they had bribed Pacheco with $70,000 to support W&F International Corp.'s marijuana permit applications.

Flawed Process

The practice of corruption in the issuance of cannabis permits is not an unexpected concept, particularly in that area. Grant Park, the state auditor for California, published a study in April that found problems with the way local governments handle cannabis permits.

Background checks, more openness, and procedures to lessen the likelihood of favoritism and corruption were also suggested.

Legislative Audit was requested by Democratic Assemblyman Reggie Byron Jones-Sawyer to examine the local permitting process in February 2023.

“Allegations of corruption during the awarding of municipal cannabis operating licenses are far from new, especially in California, where tales of backdoor wheeling and dealing between companies and public officials have been circulating for years,” Jones-Sawyer said in a letter to the committee chairman.