Pattern Of Perata's Donations Scrutinized
Finance watchdog suspects Senator's aid, income linked

By Christian Berthelsen, Robert Salladay, Chronicle Staff Writers
San Francisco Chronicle
February 17, 2004

Sacramento -- A developer and longtime ally of state Sen. Don Perata opened a political committee last year to raise money for Democrats across the state. The fund quickly collected $135,000 from four corporations -- all of which have donated generously to the Oakland lawmaker as well.

But state records show that $61,740 distributed by the group, Community Leaders for Neighborhood Preservation, was paid to a company run by Tim Staples, a Perata business associate and old college friend. And Staples paid Perata about $100,000 in consulting fees last year, the senator acknowledged.

The large corporate donations to the little-known political committee -- as well as consulting fees Perata received from Staples -- raise questions about whether Perata's outside personal income is tied to political donors.

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Perata Campaigns Paid Pal $313,000
Long-standing ties earned both men substantial fees

By Robert Salladay, Christian Berthelsen, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
San Francisco Chronicle
February 19, 2004

Business ties between state Sen. Don Perata and a longtime friend -- already under scrutiny by a Senate ethics panel -- are far more extensive and lucrative than previously reported, state documents and interviews show.

Perata's friend and associate, Timothy G. Staples, has received $313,000 in business from political campaigns initiated or supported by the influential Oakland lawmaker. At the same time, Staples has paid Perata $100,000 in consulting fees that supplement Perata's Senate salary, according to financial records and interviews with the senator.

A Senate ethics lawyer began scrutinizing Perata's relationship with Staples this week after The Chronicle detailed financial ties between the two men and a little-known Oakland political committee. That committee, Community Leaders for Neighborhood Preservation, hired Staples and raised money from Perata's campaign donors -- even as Staples was paying Perata separately for consulting services.

A political watchdog group that has been harshly critical of Perata believes the senator should be investigated for potential violation of conflict-of-interest laws. The Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights said in a letter to the Senate this week that Perata's payments for consulting work looked "like a complex and illegal money-laundering mechanism.''

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Perata To Sever Controversial Tie
Senator will end profitable consulting deal with pal

By Robert Salladay, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
San Francisco Chronicle
February 20, 2004

Sacramento -- State Sen. Don Perata said Thursday he would end his business relationship with a longtime friend who paid him for consulting work at the same time the friend raised money for political campaigns Perata had supported and initiated.

In addition to his duties as a senator, Perata operates a consulting firm that has received the bulk of its money from a company called Staples Associates. The owner of that firm, Timothy G. Staples, has earned $313,000 since 2000 for advising political campaigns pushed by the Oakland lawmaker. During this time, Perata said he was getting an outside income for business consulting work for Staples.

A political watchdog group has criticized the arrangement and asked the Senate to investigate whether campaign contributions were being paid from political committees to Staples and then to Perata's private business. A Senate ethics attorney is examining the matter, after a Chronicle story detailed their relationship.

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Perata Bill Had Benefit For Pal's Client
Recycling company hired consultant who paid Senator

By Christian Berthelsen, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
February 26, 2004

Sacramento -- When state Sen. Don Perata carried legislation last year proposing a fee on diaper sales to pay for recycling, no company stood to gain more than Knowaste LLC -- the only diaper recycling company in the nation.

But at the same time Perata introduced the bill, he was receiving personal income from a consulting firm hired by Knowaste, state records and interviews show. That firm, Staples Associates, was run by a friend and business associate of Perata who the company said it hired at the senator's recommendation.

Perata has come under scrutiny from a Senate ethics lawyer after a report by The Chronicle detailed financial ties between Perata and Timothy G. Staples, the owner of Staples Associates. Staples has been paid at least $313,000 out of campaign committees affiliated with Perata, at the same time that Staples was paying the senator about $100,000 per year for what the two men said were consulting fees for business development advice unrelated to Perata's government work.

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Chang-Perata Connection Raises Questions

By Robert Gammon
Oakland Tribune
February 27, 2004

[Anybody But Perata Website Note: This article was written at the time when Henry Chang was running for re-election as At-Large City Councilmember of the City of Oakland. The position of Oakland Vice Mayor is a largely ceremonial office selected by Oakland City Councilmembers from among their own members.]

In addition to having the full backing of Don Perata's political machine, Oakland Vice Mayor Henry Chang Jr. has hired the state senator's son, Nick Perata, in a deal that raises questions about nepotism and the proper use of campaign funds.

Chang, who is in a tough re-election fight with political newcomer Melanie Shelby, has paid Nick Perata's company, Exit Strategies, $59,212 for political consulting, campaign literature and mailings, and polling and research, according to campaign finance records.

As reported previously in the Oakland Tribune, campaign funds steered toward Exit Strategies has sparked concerns that some of the money really ends up in the state senator's pocket.

That's because Exit Strategies rents Alameda office space from Don Perata, Nick Perata purchased two homes from his father in the past two years and until 2003, the younger Perata paid his father rent for the use of another Perata family home on the Island, according to public records and the senator's annual state-ments of economic interests.

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Perata Amends Reports On Income
Senator earned over $100,000 from friend's consulting firm

By Christian Berthelsen, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
March 9, 2004

Sacramento -- State Sen. Don Perata, who is the subject of a legislative ethics review, received more personal income from a business associate in each of the past two years than he has previously acknowledged, newly filed state documents show.

Perata, an Oakland Democrat, recently amended his economic interest forms to show that he was paid more than $100,000 in 2002 by Staples Associates, a consulting firm run by business associate Timothy G. Staples. Previously, Perata reported on state forms receiving between $10,000 and $100,000 from Staples Associates for that year.

Though it is not unusual for office holders to amend their economic disclosure forms, Perata restated his personal income from Staples Associates after questions surfaced about his business relationship with Staples. The Chronicle reported last month that campaign committees associated with Perata have paid more than $300,000 to Staples at the same time Staples was making payments to Perata's consulting firm, Perata Engineering.

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Family Deals Benefit Peratas
Campaign funds build business for Senator's son

By Christian Berthelsen, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
March 26, 2004

Sacramento -- In January 1999, state Sen. Don Perata's 26-year-old son, Nick, launched a political direct mail firm based at his father's Alameda home.

Within months, the son's firm, Exit Strategies, was receiving tens of thousands of dollars in revenue from the father's Senate campaign committee. At the same time, Exit Strategies began paying consulting fees and rent to the senator, state records and interviews show.

That arrangement was the start of a lucrative partnership between father and son: Since 1999, Perata's campaign fund and other political committees he helped launch have paid Exit Strategies more than $743,000, according to campaign finance documents. By their own accounting, Nick Perata and Exit Strategies paid the senator nearly $138,000 during the same period.

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Obscure Political Group Linked To Perata
Panel paid money to close associates of State Senator

By Christian Berthelsen, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
November 24, 2004

Sacramento -- An obscure political committee funded by some of state Sen. Don Perata's top donors paid money to people under scrutiny by federal authorities for their financial ties to the Oakland lawmaker.

Concerned Citizens for California took in the bulk of its money from three donors who gave $25,000 each. The fund then spent most of its money paying close associates of Perata, D-Oakland.

Timothy G. Staples, Perata's college roommate, was paid $33,000 by the committee for what was described on state filings as campaign consulting and is owed another $12,000. Staples, through a company he owns, has paid Perata personal income of roughly $100,000 per year in each of the last three years for what the two men have described as business-development consulting.

The committee's financial dealings are nearly identical to those of another little-known political committee, Community Leaders for Neighborhood Preservation. That fund received large sums from Perata donors and paid money to Staples. But the existence of Concerned Citizens for California has not been previously reported.

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The Investigation
How a vengeful ex-lover set the FBI on Don Perata

By Robert Gammon And Will Harper
East Bay Express
December 8, 2004

Until their breakup, Frank Wishom and Lily Hu were one of Oakland's most recognizable power couples. Recognizable, in part, because they were an unusual-looking pair: He was a six-foot-four, 240-pound African American who played football in high school, while she was a petite brainiac from Taiwan, fifteen years his junior. They also were movers and shakers around town. He was a well-known businessman and entrepreneur, a man several city councilmembers called a friend. She was Oakland's top lobbyist, the person you hired if you really wanted something from City Hall.

Their annual Christmas parties attracted a who's who of Oakland politics to their stately Crocker Highlands home. Mayor Jerry Brown, Council President Ignacio De La Fuente, and Hu's old boss Don Perata all have been guests at the holiday bashes.

But by last year, the party was over. The breakup of their twenty-year relationship sent Wishom into an emotional tailspin. At one point, he even checked himself into a hospital for psychiatric observation. Compounding Wishom's grief over his lost love were his mounting financial and health troubles. Just three weeks before his 63rd birthday, he died a broken-hearted, angry, and desperate man.

But Wishom didn't take all his secrets to his grave. Or, rather, he didn't take all his ex-lover's secrets to his grave. Before his death, Wishom talked to the FBI about Hu's business dealings with local politicians. A year later, it now seems likely that the current federal investigation of Perata, the East Bay's most powerful politician, began with a tip from a jilted lover bent on revenge.

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The Players
Who's who in the FBI's investigation?

By Robert Gammon And Will Harper
East Bay Express
December 8, 2004

The FBI is investigating whether Don Perata illegally received money through several intermediaries, two sources said. Subpoenas suggest the possible intermediaries under scrutiny are a former Perata aide, Perata's two children, a college buddy, and a Sacramento political consultant. Records also show the five have been paid at least $1.39 million from Perata campaigns and committees associated with the state senator since 1998.

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Perata Has Paid Son $721,000 Since 1999
Money from lawmaker, committees under his control went to consulting business

By Josh Richman, Staff Writer
Oakland Tribune
December 17, 2004

State Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and political entities under his direct control have paid his son's consulting business at least $721,000 since 1999, a new Oakland Tribune analysis of state records shows.

This doesn't include additional work Nick Perata, 31, and his Alameda-based Exit Strategies did for other committees and candidates with which his father was aligned. Nor does it include work subcontracted to Exit Strategies by other consultants or companies working for Perata-connected causes.

FBI and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division agents served a search warrant at Nick Perata's Oakland home Wednesday, carting away two computers and several bags full of evidence. The search was part of an ongoing federal grand jury probe into Perata, his family and his political and business associates, reportedly seeking evidence of kickbacks paid to the lawmaker who now is the state's second-most-powerful elected officeholder.

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Don Perata: Influence, Family, And Political Favors

By Christian Berthelsen, Jim Herron Zamora, Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writers
San Francisco Chronicle
January 23, 2005

Part One

Sacramento -- Three years ago, when Bay Area card clubs were desperate to stop Indian tribes from opening urban casinos that would compete with them, state Sen. Don Perata summoned the clubs' lobbyists to his Capitol office.

The Oakland Democrat introduced them to his college friend Timothy G. Staples and recommended they retain him to help their cause, according to two people who attended the meeting and spoke on the condition they not be identified.

Staples got the job. And Perata went to bat for the clubs -- at the same time Perata was being paid by Staples for work the two friends described as consulting.

Standing at the intersection of Perata's work as an elected official and his personal business dealings, Staples is one of several close Perata associates who have done political work for the senator or for campaigns he supported, worked for individuals or companies that Perata supported in his official capacity, and sometimes paid Perata.

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Don Perata: Influence, Family, And Political Favors

By Christian Berthelsen, Jim Herron Zamora, Todd Wallack, Chronicle Staff Writers
San Francisco Chronicle
January 23, 2005

Part Two

Perata's Influence

What is clear is that in at least three cases, during the time Staples was paying Perata, Perata used his influence to support the interests of Staples' clients.

One example is Falcon Waterfree Technologies.

Falcon manufactures water-less toilet systems and sought to have the Oakland Unified School District buy and install the toilets. Though it hired Staples as a consultant, one school official said it was Perata who pushed the district to use its technology, phoning school officials and mentioning it to at least one board member at a social event. "Tim Staples had a proposal for waterless toilets and Perata wanted to see if the district was interested," said Siegel, the Oakland School Board member.

"It really struck me that Don Perata was just trying to do a favor for a friend or supporter. We weren't looking for new toilets. We didn't need them. We didn't buy them. It was odd, but that's how Don works."

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Road To Nowhere
The FBI probes links between State Senator Don Perata and a $40 million roadway project designed to enrich Alameda developer Ron Cowan

By Robert Gammon and Will Harper
East Bay Express
March 1, 2006

Ron Cowan wiped away his tears, but they wouldn't stop flowing. The flashy developer who once crashed his helicopter into San Francisco Bay held his breath and muttered "Goddammit" as he stepped up to the microphone. It was June 11, 2004, and many of his longtime friends were on hand to sing his praises and name a road after him. He had helped put most of them in office.

But Cowan knew something many of those in the sizable audience did not: He'd paid a steep price to get his road, the Ron Cowan Parkway. The man had gambled everything for this 1.4-mile stretch of pavement connecting his flagging Alameda business park to the Oakland International Airport.

Cowan started out as a nobody, a high-school dropout, and rose to become one of the most influential developers in the Bay Area. Among his close friends are former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, former state Senate president John Burton, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, and, most recently, state Senate boss Don Perata, the second most powerful man in California. "I'm blessed with a vivid imagination," said Cowan, who was decked out in an exquisitely tailored suit for the occasion. "My supporters would call it 'visionary' and my detractors would call it ... 'He's full of fantasies.'"

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Living Large
How state Senator Don Perata uses campaign cash to finance his lavish lifestyle
Part One of Two

From the East Bay Express
By Robert Gammon
May 23, 2007

State Senate boss Don Perata throws impressive parties, and this one was a doozy. The guests, some of Perata's best donors among them, feasted on buttery Dungeness crab and sipped California Chardonnay. Then they settled into their plush luxury box seats to watch the Oakland Raiders play the New York Jets in a game with playoff implications.

It was mid-December 2000, and the state senator had just dropped $43,600 on an oversize luxury suite at the Oakland Coliseum for a single afternoon of festivities. At the time he said he was trying to convince East Bay business leaders to buy suites of their own. But like his other ideas involving the Raiders, this one misfired. Team officials later said the bash produced zero luxury box sales.

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My Fair Lady
Don Perata helped raise Sandy Polka from debt and into a position of wealth and power. The big question is why? Campaigning the Perata way.
Part Two of Two

From the East Bay Express
By Robert Gammon
May 30, 2007

Don Perata just wanted his gal to get paid. Early in 2006, the state senate leader sent word to Tom Umberg, a three-term Southern California assemblyman who was running for the Senate: Hire Sandi Polka as a campaign consultant and you'll breeze through the June primary. But Umberg declined the offer and it cost him, according to two knowledgeable Sacramento sources. A year later, he was out of politics.

Rather than support Umberg, Perata secretly backed Lou Correa, an Orange County supervisor. Sandra Polka did the dirty work. She was hired by the innocuous-sounding political action committee Californians United — which is funded heavily by Perata's top campaign contributors — and proceeded to engineer vicious attack ads targeting Umberg. These included two mailers exploiting an extramarital affair the assemblyman had admitted to. The hit pieces, one titled "A Cruel Man," lifted quotes from distraught e-mails Umberg's wife had sent just after she learned of his infidelity.

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Coincidence Or Corruption
Documents raise new questions about the conduct of Senator Don Perata. Plus, the effects of an indictment on Sacramento and Oakland.

By Robert Gammon
East Bay Express
July 16, 2008

Politicians often accept campaign contributions and then perform favors for the people or companies that made them. Typically, they'll make calls or sponsor legislation on behalf of the contributors. But if they do these things in exchange for cash payments for their personal use, they have crossed a legal line. At that point, we call it a kickback or a bribe.

As a federal grand jury considers whether to indict state Senator Don Perata, a move that two sources told the Express they expect soon, previously undisclosed evidence raises new questions about whether the Oakland Democrat engaged in such activity. These public records appear to dovetail with subpoenas issued in the federal probe of the senator that indicate the FBI, the US Attorney's Office, and a grand jury are examining whether he operated a complicated money-laundering scheme involving his close friend and business associate, Timothy Staples.

The questionable financial dealings between Perata and Staples have been explored in detail elsewhere, most notably in the San Francisco Chronicle. Full Disclosure has chosen to examine them again now because of the probability of an upcoming indictment and due to the availability of the recently uncovered documents. Having said that, however, none of this evidence suggests that the dealings detailed here are necessarily part of the case involving the senator.

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Perata Donor's Pet Road At Center Of Probe

By Susan Sward,Lance Williams, Chronicle Staff Writers
San Francisco Chronicle
July 20, 2008

The FBI is investigating state Sen. Don Perata's role in the hiring of a Washington lobbyist to push for a road project sought by a major Perata contributor, documents show.

At the urging of the powerful Oakland Democrat, local agencies in 2000 hired former Georgia Rep. Dawson Mathis to lobby the Federal Aviation Administration regarding a multimillion-dollar expressway that today links Oakland International Airport with the Harbor Bay Business Park in Alameda.

The park's developer, Ron Cowan, has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Perata and other politicians, and for years he had sought this access road.
Mathis' hiring to the $135,000 lobbying job has emerged as a significant area of inquiry in the FBI's long-running probe of Perata, the state Senate's president pro tem.

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