A former Democratic Party of Orange County executive who agreed to try to bribe two Irvine councilmembers to pass pro-cannabis laws, and later became a key witness in the FBI’s corruption investigation in Anaheim, will face sentencing later this month and could see no prison time.
Melahat Rafiei’s cooperation with federal investigators over recent years led to guilty pleas from former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu and Anaheim Chamber of Commerce CEO Todd Ament, contributing to the $320 million sale of Angel Stadium being canceled.
Four FBI agents in 2019 detained Rafiei, alleging she was offering a cannabis company the opportunity to bribe Irvine councilmembers to get a retail sales law passed. Rafiei then agreed to cooperate with the FBI “to help expose corruption in the Anaheim government,” according to a filing made Friday by her defense attorney. A bribery charge against her that prosecutors secured in 2019 was later dropped.
Rafiei agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors in January 2023, admitting to one count of attempted wire fraud. She is scheduled for sentencing on Aug. 22.
In preparation for the hearing, prosecutors told the court in filings made Friday that she should be sentenced to probation and not serve any time in prison. Prosecutors also want her to be fined $10,000.
“Without defendant Rafiei’s actions, the government likely could not have charged Ament or Sidhu,” prosecutors wrote. “Rafiei devoted a significant amount of time to her cooperation, provided information that was truthful and timely, and risked her own political, business, and personal connections and reputation to do so.”
Rafiei had spent years as a political consultant for several Orange County elected leaders and was once the executive director of the Democratic Party of Orange County.
Rafiei’s defense attorney framed it more bluntly: “High-ranking public officials who have now been exposed and convicted could be continuing their mass-scale corruption absent Ms. Rafiei’s aid. It is likely that Anaheim would have suffered financially had Ms. Rafiei not aided the investigation.”
“Once the investigation of Mr. Sidhu and Mr. Ament came to light, the Anaheim City Council voided a $320 million deal to sell Angel Stadium, reportedly due to alleged underhanded dealings by a ‘cabal’ of business and political leaders,” attorney Jennifer Wirsching wrote.
Rafiei would serve a year of probation under prosecutors’ recommendations.
Once it became public that the FBI was investigating Sidhu for corruption, the city’s near-finalized sale of Angel Stadium, which Sidhu had led negotiations for, was canceled by the City Council in 2022.
Both Sidhu and Ament have pleaded guilty to federal charges.
Sidhu this summer spent less than a month at a low-security federal prison in Santa Barbara County for corruption charges.
Ament has not yet been sentenced. He, too, became a witness for the FBI and may soon have his charges reduced for cooperating.
Rafiei had been under investigation well before attention turned to Ament and Sidhu.
While she was not hit with any bribery charges, Rafiei, in her plea deal, admitted that she agreed in 2018 to try to give at least $225,000 in bribes to two members of the Irvine City Council in exchange for passing a law allowing retail cannabis stores in the city, benefiting Rafiei’s clients who were actually confidential FBI sources. No councilmembers were named in the plea agreement, nor have any allegations against any councilmembers been made by prosecutors. No current councilmembers were serving at that time.
She also falsely represented to the cannabis company owner that $200,000 she had requested for services would go to the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce when she instead intended to split it equally between herself and an associate not affiliated with the chamber, according to her plea deal.
Neither Anaheim nor Irvine ended up passing any retail cannabis laws.
U.S. District Court Judge Fernando L. Aenlle-Rocha will decide whether Rafiei is given probation or will spend time in prison.
Born in Tehran, Iran, Rafiei’s family fled during the Islamic Revolution in the middle of the night, taking just two suitcases to Pakistan, her defense attorneys said in their argument to the court for a probation sentence. The family eventually made it to Israel, where a Jewish-Iranian family helped them obtain asylum in Italy before they eventually moved to California.
Rafiei was the executive director of the Democratic Party of Orange County from 2007 to 2009 and later became secretary for the California Democratic Party in 2021. Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed her to the OC Fair Board in 2021. She resigned from those positions in May 2023.