South Tahoe attorney convicted in bribery case
By Stuart Pfeifer, Los Angeles Times
The lawyer son of a former top California pension fund official was convicted on charges related to a scheme to have a client lie to a federal grand jury in exchange for cash.
Alfred Nash Villalobos, 46, of South Lake Tahoe faces up to 30 years in prison after his conviction Wednesday on extortion and obstruction of justice charges.
His father, Alfred J.R. Villalobos of Stateline, a former director on the board of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, was sued by the California attorney general’s office last year. The suit accused him of plying a CalPERS executive with gifts to win business for investment firms he represented. Trial in that case is pending.
The younger Villalobos was arrested in 2009 on suspicion of accepting $50,000 cash from a lawyer whose client was the subject of a grand jury investigation into allegations of immigration visa fraud.
Villalobos represented a man scheduled to testify before the grand jury. According to prosecutors, he told the defense attorney he would have his client lie to the grand jury in exchange for cash.
The defense attorney went to the FBI, which secretly recorded conversations in which Villalobos negotiated the bribe, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph N. Akrotirianakis.
Hang ’em High.
I remember reading about it when looking up articles on the CalPers bribery scandal. Very disappointing behavior for someone in a position of trust. Nice to know that the justice system took this very seriously and handed out an appropriate sentence.