Free Republic

The Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed several San Diego city officials to testify under oath as part of an ongoing securities-fraud investigation of city finances and the troubled pension system. The demand for sworn testimony, along with a separate subpoena seeking a sweeping array of city financial records, was issued late last week and will be discussed at a special City Council hearing tomorrow. "I can't say I was terribly surprised," Mayor Dick Murphy said yesterday. The SEC, spurred by revelations of irregularities in the city's financial disclosures, has been investigating city finances for the better part of a...

A City Hall investigation that could bring censure hearings against besieged San Jose Councilman Terry Gregory gathered steam Friday when a task force issued subpoenas to compel witnesses to testify about allegations of Gregory soliciting gifts from businessmen. The city council's ethics task force, charged with examining accusations that Gregory sought and received gifts and pressured companies to give contributions to a special events fund, voted to issue subpoenas to: • Dennis Fong, majority owner of the Tropicana Shopping Center. In May, a Mercury News editorial reported that Fong gave Gregory a free case of wine, valued at about $1,400....

Federal prosecutors want financial records on incoming state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and several of his relatives and closest associates, according to a subpoena issued in a federal grand jury probe into possible public corruption. One such subpoena -- obtained by the Oakland Tribune on condition that the recipient remain anonymous -- names Perata, D-Oakland; his son, Nick Perata of Oakland; his daughter, Rebecca Perata-Rosati, and his son-in-law, Michael Rosati, both of Alameda; his former aide, Oakland lobbyist Lily Hu; political consultant Sandra Polka; Perata's friend and sometime business partner Timothy Staples of Sacramento; and several of these...

The federal investigation into steroids has expanded to the world of bodybuilding. The home and gymnasium of a bodybuilder linked to Balco Laboratories was searched last November, and last weekend federal agents reportedly handed out subpoenas at an Ohio bodybuilding convention co-owned by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. A Drug Enforcement Agency spokesman in Los Angles told the Mercury News that agents searched the Temecula home of Milos Sarcev, a former Mr. Yugoslavia. ESPN reported Thursday night that federal agents delivered at least five subpoenas to bodybuilders at the Arnold Fitness Weekend in Columbus, Ohio, as part of a second grand jury...

The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee said on Thursday it had subpoenaed Global Crossing Chairman Gary Winnick to testify about deals that may have inflated revenue at Qwest Communications International Inc. . "Based on our interviews, Mr. Winnick appears to have been a lot more involved in the day-to-day operations of the company than he has admitted," panel spokesman Ken Johnson told Reuters. The committee has been investigating whether Global Crossing used contemporaneous deals for network capacity to inflate revenue and has expanded that probe to determine whether Qwest has made similar deals, Johnson said. Rep. Billy Tauzin, the...

The partisan split that had been building inside the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee burst out into the open this morning as Joseph Lieberman, the committee chairman and potential 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, forced through a subpoena to the White House for information about its contact with Enron. In the debate before issuing the subpoena, Lieberman said that the committee was "being slow-walked at best and stonewalled at worst" by the White House over Enron information. But ranking Republican Fred Thompson said the subpoena represents "nothing more than a desire to have a look-see to see if something will turn...