Docs: Alleged bribe came before Antioch homebuilders played all legal cards

ANTIOCH — A company-branded travel mug allegedly stuffed with $5,000 in cash and slid to an Antioch councilmember was supposed to pay off big for a prominent Contra Costa homebuilder family.

All that the father-and-son duo of David and Trent Sanson of DeNova Homes wanted, prosecutors say, were assurances their massive development would reach a milestone needed to release what remained of a nearly $12 million bond hanging over their heads.

As it turned out, the alleged — and not so subtle — cash-in-a-travel-mug gambit may not have been necessary.

Records obtained from the city through a public records request show the Sansons still had a perfectly legal — and ultimately successful — card up their sleeves. Just weeks after David Sanson met with the councilmember, DeNova Homes filed a “notice of breach” alleging the city had not upheld its part of the development agreement for the 533-home Aviano subdivision.

Emails show Antioch City Hall officials rushed to resolve the matter, putting a vote to declare the project complete before the City Council about a month later, in August 2024. With unanimous council approval, the deal was done, clearing the way for the release of DeNova’s bond.

But by then, the councilmember whose vote and influence the Sansons are now accused of trying to buy had already gone to the FBI.

Attorneys representing David and Trent Sanson declined to comment this week. After the pair were indicted on federal charges of conspiracy and bribery in April, David Sanson’s attorney declared his client’s innocence, suggesting the businessman was the victim of a “takedown” by “a controversial local politico, whose own suspect personal motivations we look forward to exposing.”

DeNova Homes’ chief legal officer, Dana Tsubota, also declined to comment, saying “our focus remains on building homes and serving our communities with integrity.”

Much of DeNova’s concern appeared to center around an $11.879 million bond for its Aviano project. Such bonds act as insurance policies for cities, ensuring that developers complete all the promised work — such as building streets, connecting sewage lines and constructing sidewalks — without walking away prematurely and leaving cities to finish the job.

Disputes can arise, however, when cities are slow to release those bonds, affecting a developer’s ability to secure financing for other projects. Those bonds can include annual premiums that leave companies saddled with thousands of dollars — sometimes more — in extra costs when projects run long.

The emails show DeNova leaders expected the Aviano-related bond to be released in summer 2023, nearly a year before the alleged bribe.

In July 2023, a senior Antioch public works inspector emailed an engineering consultant and the city’s acting public works director to announce that “all punch list items are complete for phase 3. Please send it to council for acceptance of performance bonds.” He copied at least two DeNova executives, alerting them to the good news.

The City Council unanimously gave preliminary approval to the developer’s work in August 2023. The bond wasn’t released, however, because final approval was contingent on DeNova wrapping up construction on a couple of roadways.

By early 2024, DeNova’s leaders had become increasingly impatient with the city.

The company issued a report in March suggesting it had fulfilled all the city’s obligations. In May, a dispute arose over whether DeNova was on the hook for further work along Sand Creek Road. That prompted Trent Sanson, then the company’s executive vice president, to question whether he needed to “escalate to others at City Hall for further discussion.”

“If City Staff here is unable to work with us in getting things squared away for formal tract acceptance of Phase 3 as a result, I will be reaching out to others at the City to schedule a meeting at City Hall with City Manager and others accordingly,” Trent Sanson wrote in a May 20, 2024, email to Andrew Little, the city’s engineering consultant.

The next day, Trent Sanson emailed then-Mayor Lamar Hernandez-Thorpe and then-Acting City Manager Kwame Reed asking for a meeting. In the process, he suggested the city’s engineers also were to blame for slow progress on two other DeNova projects in the city.

At that point, federal prosecutors say the Sansons went to work on a parallel — and illegal — plan to also sway others at City Hall.

Prosecutors say Trent Sanson texted an Antioch city council member — now widely believed to be former Pittsburg police Lt. Mike Barbanica — on May 29, 2024, asking to discuss the project. During a meeting two weeks later, prosecutors say Trent Sanson offered a bribe for the councilmember to get the project’s approval on a City Council agenda, and to vote in favor of it. Barbanica refuses to confirm or deny whether he was the councilmember.

On June 20, 2024, David Sanson, now the company’s CEO emeritus, met with the councilmember to complete the deal, according to the indictment. During that meeting, David Sanson allegedly assured the politician that he’d been in touch with the political consultant running the councilmember’s independent expenditure committee.

Then David Sanson handed over a blood-orange DeNova travel mug stuffed with $5,000 in cash, adding that “we’re back supporting you and all that,” court records show.

“So, I just want you to know that’s happening — that it’s not just a false commitment or anything like that; and then Trent told me you needed a little extra shot,” David Sanson allegedly told the councilmember, according to court records.

That councilmember quickly alerted the FBI, which opened a criminal investigation.

Nine months later, the FBI searched the home of longtime Contra Costa political consultant Mary Jo Rossi, who at the time was running an independent expenditure to support Barbanica and had worked for the Sansons.

Emails contained in the recently released documents suggest DeNova’s legal maneuvers proved far more effective than the alleged bribe.

On June 27, 2024, Trent Sanson finally met with Reed, the acting city manager, and several city department leaders to discuss Aviano and several other projects in the city. Also present was Councilmember Lori Ogorchock.

It does not appear Antioch officials made any promises during the meeting to release the bond, and DeNova executives fired off more emails in the following days, repeating their demands.

Just weeks later, on July 19, 2024, DeNova Homes’ chief legal officer filed the “notice of breach” against the city, claiming it “failed and refused to follow the procedures” for accepting the project’s third and final phase.

The filing quickly made waves at City Hall. Ogorchock emailed the city manager a single sentence: “And so here’s the beginning of a lawsuit.” The city’s acting public works director turned to an administrative analyst and asked simply, “Help please.”

Almost immediately, the city capitulated.

Jakob Rodgers is a senior breaking news reporter. Call, text or send him an encrypted message via Signal at 510-390-2351, or email him at jrodgers@bayareanewsgroup.com.