Former Anaheim Mayor Sidhu agrees to plea deal with four counts of federal charges

Former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu has agreed to plead guilty to four federal charges; the deal announced Wednesday, Aug. 16, is part of a federal investigation into alleged public corruption in Anaheim.

Sidhu will plead guilty to four charges: obstruction of justice, wire fraud, false statement to the Federal Aviation Administration and false statement to the FBI.

In a statement Wednesday, Sidhu’s attorney Paul S. Meyer said, “Former Mayor Sidhu appreciates the thorough and fair investigation by the United States Attorneys Office leading to a resolution in this matter.”

The total maximum sentence for all the offenses for which Sidhu has agreed to plea to is up to 50 years in prison, according to the agreement. He will next need to enter his plea in court and his actual sentencing is up to a judge and would happen at a later date and could be significantly shorter.

The U.S. Attorneys’ Office agreed that if the court imposes a prison term of no less than 30 months, it would waive its right to appeal the sentence.

During the city’s negotiations to sell Angel Stadium to team owner Arte Moreno’s business partnership, Sidhu sought to become a member of the city’s negotiating team and then provided “confidential inside information belonging to the city” to former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Ament and to a consultant working for the Angels, “so that the Angels could buy Angel Stadium on terms beneficial to the Angels,” according to the plea agreement.

In 2019, Sidhu had also provided a confidential appraisal range related to Angel Stadium to Ament to give to the Angels before that figure was public, according to the plea agreement.

Sidhu was secretly recorded several months later saying he expected to ask for a $1 million campaign contribution toward his reelection from the Angels if they succeeded in buying the stadium, the plea agreement says. In an interview with FBI agents on May 12, 2022, days before the FBI’s  investigation became public, Sudhu lied to the agents about expecting “nothing” from the Angels after the stadium deal closed.

Sidhu resigned in May 2022 following the revelation that the FBI was investigating the former mayor and the $320 million stadium deal was scuttled by the City Council.

Angels President John Carpino declined to comment Wednesday; he was identified by title as part of a plan to run mock City Council sessions on the proposed sale.

Angels Organization spokesperson Marie Garvey said, “It is important to note both the plea agreement along with the city’s investigation showed no evidence of any wrongdoing by the Angels Organization.”

The FBI’s investigation was underway since at least 2019, according to an affidavit filed last year in support of a request for search warrants that included information investigators said was gleaned from wire taps and intercepted emails.

The plea agreement gives details about how Sidhu attempted to not pay California sales tax for a used helicopter he purchased for $205,000. He had registered the helicopter using a mailing address in Scottsdale, Arizona to avoid paying $15,887 in taxes. The helicopter was stored in Chino.

Sidhu has already paid back the taxes, according to the agreement.

He also provided false information to the FAA when he submitted the Arizona mailing address as his own, the agreements says. The mailing address belonged to an unnamed Anaheim businessperson.

Sidhu and his attorneys signed the plea agreement on Monday, Aug. 14.

For the obstruction of justice charge, Sidhu would admit that he destroyed, concealed or falsified records with the intent to impede the investigation.

Also in the plea agreement are details about the mock council meeting sessions planned in advance of the council’s vote on the Angel Stadium sale.

Sidhu had deleted an email about the meeting that used personal addresses for him, two other unnamed council members and other city staff, the agreement says.

The plea agreement said the meeting was to include the then-mayor pro tem, another council member, the city’s chief communications officer, another city staffer, the unnamed Angels consultant, Ament, Carpino and an attorney for the Angels.

The practice meeting would be held in three sessions, according to the agreement’s description, during which participants would debate the strengths, pitfalls  and vulnerabilities of the stadium deal. The Angels team would develop what the agreement called “zingers,” responses and other points to improve the participants’ performance.

According to the plea agreement, the two unnamed council members were assigned specifically to attack then-Councilman Jose Moreno, a strong critic of the stadium deal.

It appeared the mock meeting would be a dress rehearsal for the real meeting.

This is a developing story, please check back for updates.