Thursday, May 15, 2003 | 11:35 a.m.
The offices of three San Diego city councilmen and a San Diego strip club owned by Las Vegas businessman Michael Galardi were raided by FBI agents and San Diego police at the same time Galardi businesses were searched in Las Vegas.
Armed with sealed federal search warrants, law enforcement authorities in San Diego raided the City Hall offices of Councilmen Ralph Inzunza, Charles Lewis and Michael Zucchet shortly before 1 p.m. Wednesday. Authorities at the same time also raided Galardi's Cheetahs club in San Diego and delivered subpoenas to the San Diego Data Processing Corporation, a nonprofit corporation that provides computer services to the city's government agencies.
San Diego media reported that the FBI stopped Galardi Wednesday in that city while in his car. FBI agents, armed with a warrant, searched Galardi and his vehicle but did not arrest him.
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in 2001 that Lewis and Inzunza had received campaign money from contributors associated with Galardi and his businesses. The newspaper also reported that the contact between Lewis' campaign and the contributions from the Las Vegas area was former Clark County Commissioner Lance Malone, a Galardi consultant.
Malone did not return repeated telephone messages seeking comment Wednesday. Galardi also could not be reached for comment.
San Diego city records indicated that Cheetahs has been in business there since June 1990.
The Union-Tribune reported in August 2001 that Lewis and Inzunza each received $4,500 in campaign contributions that year from Las Vegas contributors. At least $1,500 donated to Inzunza came from contributors associated with Galardi and at least $2,000 given to Lewis came from contributors associated with La Fuente Inc., a Nevada corporation for which Galardi is president. Malone was one of the Galardi associates who donated money to both Lewis and Inzunza, the newspaper reported.
The contributions were made after Galardi's unsuccessful attempt in 2000 to open a Jaguars strip club in San Diego. He sued the city over a business permit dispute but eventually withdrew that lawsuit and opened a Jaguars in Las Vegas last year.
The newspaper reported that Lewis first met Malone when the San Diego City Council was reviewing ordinances dealing with strip clubs and other adult businesses. Lewis said that Malone wanted to use San Diego's ordinances as examples of ways to restrict adult entertainment businesses in Southern Nevada.
Malone in 2000 authored an ordinance adopted by the Clark County Commission that increased distance requirements between adult entertainment venues from 500 feet to 1,000 feet in the county. After losing his re-election bid that fall, Malone formed GR Consulting and took on Galardi as a client.
Malone helped Galardi obtain permits for a driveway overhang at the Cheetahs strip club in Las Vegas. The Union-Tribune also has referred to Malone as a Galardi lobbyist in San Diego.
In San Diego on Wednesday, Lewis said he did not know why he was targeted by law enforcement authorities. He also said he had no relationship with Cheetahs.
U.S. Attorney Carol Lam, who represents the Southern District of California, issued a brief statement about the ongoing investigation.
"No charges have been filed at this time," Lam said. "Every effort will be made to conclude the investigation as expeditiously as possible."
San Diego Mayor Dick Murphy issued a separate statement after meeting with Lam.
"I have been informed that the offices of three San Diego council members have been searched," Murphy said. "I was also told that the mayor's office is not a subject or target of this investigation."
FBI Special Agent Jeff Thurman in San Diego was equally tight-lipped, other than to say that this was the first raid of Cheetahs that he could recall. Initial media reports in San Diego indicated that the search of the City Hall offices included the use of computer forensic equipment.
The three councilmen involved in the probe represent one-third of the nine-member San Diego City Council.
"This is a very difficult day for the city of San Diego, but I want to urge everyone to be cautious and reserved in drawing any conclusions at this point," San Diego City Attorney Casey Gwinn said in a prepared statement. "Reputations can be destroyed in an investigation such as this even though individual council members may never face actual charges of wrongdoing."
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