Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

San Diego grand jury to look into Chargers ticket guarantee

"This one is really big"

— Word from good sources at city hall has it that the county grand jury has launched a major investigation of corruption charges involving the city's ticket guarantee contract with the Chargers. Under threat of subpoena, city officials have reportedly handed over hundreds of pages of secret minutes from the many closed sessions held by the city council in the months leading up to the approval of the controversial deal, which requires city taxpayers guarantee 60,000 seats be sold for each football game. And many city officials themselves expect to be subpoenaed in the case. "This one is really big," says an excited official. "I think they're trying to blow the lid off this place."

City of frauds

A former savings and loan executive convicted of fraud a decade ago will be spending most of next year behind bars, but that's not the worst of it. Raymond M. Gray made headlines ten years ago when, instead of showing up for sentencing, he went on the lam to Tijuana. Gray had been convicted of bank fraud in an $18 million case involving an S&L he ran near Seattle. He was eventually caught and did three and a half years in the slammer before most of his convictions were reversed by an appellate court, and he was released pending further appeals. Federal prosecutors claimed he returned to Rancho Santa Fe and resumed his fraudulent ways. Last week a judge in Washington state re-affirmed his remaining one-year sentence, telling Gray to report to federal prison in early January. Gray said most of his business ventures had gone bankrupt, so he couldn't afford to pay $2.15 million in court-ordered restitution. Gray also told the judge he was sorry for his crimes -- and was especially downhearted because the jail time meant he wouldn't be able to use his tickets to the Super Bowl ... Peter Dewan, known as Peter Dhawan when he was a high-flying retail executive living in La Jolla during the 1980s, shot and killed himself in Dallas on October 21. Dewan, 59, was facing trial in Boise, Idaho, on 21 counts of bankruptcy fraud, money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud, and criminal forfeiture in connection with failed real estate ventures there. In the '80s Dewan was the toast of La Jolla society before U-Save, a discount warehouse business he had started here, crumbled into bankruptcy.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Politics was never like this

Two titans of the car alarm business are fighting it out in a Detroit courtroom, with possible repercussions for California politics. Darrell Issa, owner and founder of Vista's Directed Electronics, is pitted against Rand Mueller, president and CEO of Detroit's Code-Alarm, Inc. Self-made millionaire Issa is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate against state Treasurer Matt Fong and Mayor Susan Golding. Code-Alarm is suing Directed Electronics for patent-infringement. In June 1995, Directed won its own patent-infringement suit against Code-Alarm, and other cases are pending. The fight is getting nasty. "Mr. Issa seems interested in only three things: selling Directed [Electronics] to an outside buyer, running for political office and, in our opinion, trying to damage Code-Alarm's business," Mueller said in a news release reported by Crain's Detroit Business newspaper last week. Replied Issa: "That release was just a rehash. There was no new news. They are just trying to embarrass me and make me look like I'm another crooked businessman running for political office." A local car alarm retailer told Crain's: "It's really transcended a legal battle between these two. If someone could extract the emotions out of this, it could be done a lot sooner. It's created mistrust of both companies among dealers. It brings up questions about each company's health and vitality."

Names

An investment outfit owned by John Moores, who is seeking city money to build a new baseball stadium for the Padres, just bought a big stake in BindView, a Houston software maker. Moores, who made his first fortune with his own software company, shared the $18 million deal with General Atlantic Partners -- the nation's largest high-tech venture capital firm ... Garland Burrell, the African-American judge who is presiding over the trial of alleged Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, got his law degrees from California Western School of Law.

Contributor: Matt Potter

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Reader 1st place writing contest winner gets kudos

2nd place winner not so much

— Word from good sources at city hall has it that the county grand jury has launched a major investigation of corruption charges involving the city's ticket guarantee contract with the Chargers. Under threat of subpoena, city officials have reportedly handed over hundreds of pages of secret minutes from the many closed sessions held by the city council in the months leading up to the approval of the controversial deal, which requires city taxpayers guarantee 60,000 seats be sold for each football game. And many city officials themselves expect to be subpoenaed in the case. "This one is really big," says an excited official. "I think they're trying to blow the lid off this place."

City of frauds

A former savings and loan executive convicted of fraud a decade ago will be spending most of next year behind bars, but that's not the worst of it. Raymond M. Gray made headlines ten years ago when, instead of showing up for sentencing, he went on the lam to Tijuana. Gray had been convicted of bank fraud in an $18 million case involving an S&L he ran near Seattle. He was eventually caught and did three and a half years in the slammer before most of his convictions were reversed by an appellate court, and he was released pending further appeals. Federal prosecutors claimed he returned to Rancho Santa Fe and resumed his fraudulent ways. Last week a judge in Washington state re-affirmed his remaining one-year sentence, telling Gray to report to federal prison in early January. Gray said most of his business ventures had gone bankrupt, so he couldn't afford to pay $2.15 million in court-ordered restitution. Gray also told the judge he was sorry for his crimes -- and was especially downhearted because the jail time meant he wouldn't be able to use his tickets to the Super Bowl ... Peter Dewan, known as Peter Dhawan when he was a high-flying retail executive living in La Jolla during the 1980s, shot and killed himself in Dallas on October 21. Dewan, 59, was facing trial in Boise, Idaho, on 21 counts of bankruptcy fraud, money laundering, bank fraud, wire fraud, and criminal forfeiture in connection with failed real estate ventures there. In the '80s Dewan was the toast of La Jolla society before U-Save, a discount warehouse business he had started here, crumbled into bankruptcy.

Sponsored
Sponsored

Politics was never like this

Two titans of the car alarm business are fighting it out in a Detroit courtroom, with possible repercussions for California politics. Darrell Issa, owner and founder of Vista's Directed Electronics, is pitted against Rand Mueller, president and CEO of Detroit's Code-Alarm, Inc. Self-made millionaire Issa is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate against state Treasurer Matt Fong and Mayor Susan Golding. Code-Alarm is suing Directed Electronics for patent-infringement. In June 1995, Directed won its own patent-infringement suit against Code-Alarm, and other cases are pending. The fight is getting nasty. "Mr. Issa seems interested in only three things: selling Directed [Electronics] to an outside buyer, running for political office and, in our opinion, trying to damage Code-Alarm's business," Mueller said in a news release reported by Crain's Detroit Business newspaper last week. Replied Issa: "That release was just a rehash. There was no new news. They are just trying to embarrass me and make me look like I'm another crooked businessman running for political office." A local car alarm retailer told Crain's: "It's really transcended a legal battle between these two. If someone could extract the emotions out of this, it could be done a lot sooner. It's created mistrust of both companies among dealers. It brings up questions about each company's health and vitality."

Names

An investment outfit owned by John Moores, who is seeking city money to build a new baseball stadium for the Padres, just bought a big stake in BindView, a Houston software maker. Moores, who made his first fortune with his own software company, shared the $18 million deal with General Atlantic Partners -- the nation's largest high-tech venture capital firm ... Garland Burrell, the African-American judge who is presiding over the trial of alleged Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, got his law degrees from California Western School of Law.

Contributor: Matt Potter

Comments
Sponsored
Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Flowering pear trees in Kensington not that nice

Empty dirt plots in front of Ken Cinema
Next Article

SDSU pres gets highest pay raise in state over last 15 years

Union-Tribune still stiffing downtown San Diego landlord?
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.