Former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Ament, who was a key witness in the FBI’s investigation into former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu and the sale of Angel Stadium, is getting a new plea deal that could reduce how much time he spends in prison, according to court documents filed Friday afternoon, Aug. 8.
Ament agreed in 2022 to plead guilty to fraud charges, and, on Friday, prosecutors and defense attorneys were supposed to submit arguments to the court for how long a federal judge should sentence him to prison. Instead, both sides have now agreed to revise his plea agreement and are finalizing the new terms, according to a filing.
A new plea deal would delay his sentencing scheduled for Aug. 22.
That updated agreement might include dropping one of Ament’s four charges and reducing the amount of time he’d spend in prison. A judge could still reject the new deal once it is finalized.
In the plea deal Ament struck with prosecutors in 2022, he pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud, one count of making a false statement to a financial institution and one count of submitting a false tax return.
Ament is currently out on bond. Prosecutors and Ament’s defense attorneys say they need until Aug. 22 to finalize his new plea agreement and are asking for sentencing to be pushed back to Feb. 6.
U.S. District Court Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha has not yet agreed to delay sentencing.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to comment when asked what led to a new plea agreement. Ament’s attorneys declined to comment as well.
Ament is not the only once-prominent OC political figure scheduled to be sentenced this month.
Former executive director of the Democratic Party of Orange County and political consultant Melahat Rafiei, who cooperated with the FBI to help bring charges against Ament, was still scheduled as of the end of day Friday for sentencing on Aug. 22 by the same judge as Ament.
Rafiei agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors in January 2023, admitting to one count of attempted wire fraud.
Ament and Rafiei’s charges come from an alleged attempt to defraud local cannabis company employees, asking for six-figure payments to lobby the cities of Anaheim and Irvine to pass laws allowing retail cannabis sales while instead pocketing much of the cash.
Once one of the power players in Anaheim politics, Ament’s resignation from the chamber in 2021 coincided with him beginning to cooperate with the FBI.
Ament was a close political adviser to Sidhu. He was also a central member of an alleged cabal of business and political leaders in Anaheim who exerted “significant influence over the city,” according to a 2022 FBI affidavit.
Ultimately, Ament would be the one who wore a wire for the FBI that secretly recorded Sidhu saying he hoped to get a $1 million campaign contribution for his reelection from the Angels once the now-canceled sale of Angel Stadium was complete. The Angels have not been accused of any wrongdoing by federal prosecutors.
To date, only Ament, Rafiei and Sidhu have been charged in connection with the FBI’s sprawling investigation, which has given no indication if its probe is complete.
Sidhu resigned from office in 2022 after a pivotal FBI affidavit became public that showed investigators were looking into the former mayor.
That affidavit and subsequent plea deals roiled Anaheim, leading leaders to reflect on how the city could enact better policies to prevent improper influences from taking root again and pass new transparency and ethics laws.