Former Compton Councilmember Isaac Galvan has admitted to funneling $70,000 in bribes to a corrupt Baldwin Park councilman to secure his votes on cannabis permits tied to Galvan’s clients.
Galvan, 38, pleaded guilty to one count of bribery and one count of tax evasion in court Tuesday, Dec. 9, as part of a plea deal with federal prosecutors. He agreed to pay $327,557 in restitution to the IRS for the nearly $600,000 in income he failed to report from 2017 to 2020.
He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison on the bribery charge and up to five years for the tax evasion. Sentencing is scheduled for June 8, 2026.
Galvan originally pleaded not guilty following his arrest in September 2023 and maintained his innocence up until he agreed to the plea deal in November, records showed.
The scheme dates back to Baldwin Park’s compromised rollout of commercial cannabis in 2017. Then, Galvan, who served on the Compton council from 2013 to 2022, approached his friend and Baldwin Park’s then-city attorney, Robert Tafoya, about securing permits for potential clients of his consulting firm. Tafoya connected Galvan with Councilmember Ricardo Pacheco, who would receive the kickbacks from the arrangement.
All told, Galvan took five blank $10,000 checks and one $50,000 check from his client, W&F International. The five checks were passed to Tafoya, cashed by Tafoya’s brother and then split between Galvan and Tafoya. The $50,000 went to Pacheco after he voted in favor of W&F’s permit in June and July 2018, according to Galvan’s plea agreement.
Pacheco found himself in trouble with the FBI that same year when he took $37,900 in bribes from a police officer, working undercover, in exchange for supporting the Baldwin Park Police Association’s 2018 contract with the city. The FBI seized $302,900 — some of which was buried in Pacheco’s yard — during raids of Pacheco’s home and he later agreed to his own plea deal, which included cooperating with federal investigators.
While that case was unfolding, Pacheco asked W&F International, through Galvan, to pay $20,000 toward his legal defense fund. Those payments were spread across seven checks from different bank accounts and Galvan arranged the delivery to Pacheco, according to Galvan’s plea agreement.
As a result of the backroom dealings, Galvan made $560,525 over a four-year period, but he failed to report the income to the IRS, causing the federal government to miss out on $115,816 in taxes. Galvan had those who owed him money write checks with blank payee lines or in the names of others, such as his council liaison. Then, those individuals would use the funds to pay Galvan’s living expenses, including his rent, the plea agreement states.
Yichang Bai, 52, the owner and operator of W&F International, has pleaded not guilty to his alleged role in the bribery scheme. His trial is scheduled to take place in February.
The El Monte Police Department, acting on a tip, raided W&F International’s warehouse in Baldwin Park in September 2020. The company was already in operation illegally and owed $575,000 to Baldwin Park at the time, but the City Council did not revoke its permit until more than a month after the neighboring police department shut down the warehouse.
The day before that vote, the FBI raided the homes and offices of Galvan, Tafoya and San Bernardino County Planning Commissioner Gabriel Chavez. All three, as well as the City of Commerce’s former city manager, Edgar Cisneros, have taken plea deals in the years since then.
Chavez served as an intermediary between Pacheco and other cannabis applicants, including the clients of Cisneros.
One of Galvan’s other cannabis clients, DJCBP Corp., sued him, Tafoya, Pacheco and Councilmember Manny Lozano on allegations that the men had tricked the company into spending $90,000 to buy a cannabis business in Baldwin Park originally obtained for less than $4,000.
A jury awarded a $1.9 million verdict to DJCBP in September 2025, but the judge partially overturned the decision in November. The ruling released Baldwin Park, Lozano and Pacheco from liability, but left Tafoya and Galvan — who failed to appear — on the hook for the payout.
DJCBP filed an appeal of the decision in early December.