A federal judge has rebuffed federal prosecutors’ attempts to dismiss a fraud count against former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Todd Ament, who cooperated as a witness in the FBI’s investigation of former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu in the failed Angel Stadium sales deal.
Initially, Ament was attempting to withdraw his July 2022 guilty plea to defrauding a cannabis company. He also pleaded guilty to loan fraud and tax cheating.
A hearing on that motion was scheduled, but then prosecutors filed a motion last month saying they were moving to dismiss the count with the blessing of defense attorneys “in the interests of justice.”
Prosecutors argued that the cannabis company fraud count “may be dismissed without defendant first withdrawing his guilty plea.”
U.S. District Judge Fernando Aenlle-Rocha on Monday issued an order denying the motion to dismiss the wire fraud count “based on the government’s failure to submit a memorandum in support of its motion or to offer any substantive explanation or justification to support its request to dismiss count one of the indictment.”
And the judge said he would cancel a hearing that had been scheduled for Wednesday, Oct. 22, because Ament did not file a “timely” motion to withdraw his guilty plea.
The judge said a Nov. 14 sentencing hearing will go as scheduled.
Still to be determined is a motion to include the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce as a victim in the case. The dismissal of the wire fraud count could have scuttled that case. Attorney Dean Steward, who represents the chamber, has argued in court papers that it deserves $264,330 in restitution.
Ament’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.