Anaheim’s former Mayor Harry Sidhu and its former head of the Chamber of Commerce Todd Ament engaged in a “potential criminal conspiracy,” according to investigative firm JL Group. Their independent report found out that $1.5 million in COVID-19 recovery funds were diverted to a nonprofit.
“This involves a major scandal that ex-Mayor Sidhu and Todd Ament were all for,” explains Gustavo Arellano, columnist for the LA Times Metro desk. “So in 2000, when of course everything shut down, the City of Anaheim received millions of dollars in COVID federal relief funds. And they gave $6 million of it to Visit Anaheim, which is basically the bureau that promotes tourism in the City of Anaheim. … A lot of activists and residents in the city [are] saying, ‘Why do we need millions of dollars to go to a tourism bureau when there is no tourism happening at all?’ … So from that $6 million, which is all legal by the way, this independent investigation alleges that Sidhu directed the CEO of Visit Anaheim to divert $1.5 million … to another nonprofit. And from there, no one knew what that money was gonna go to.”
