Curren Price, a ten-year representative of South Los Angeles on the City Council, has been taken into custody. The reason? Accusations of financial dishonesty.
Democratic LA city councilman charged with embezzlement, conflict of interest in latest political scandal https://t.co/C2Bx6i2u3x
— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 14, 2023
Price is facing charges for a suspected pay-to-play scheme. The theory is that he cast votes for projects favorable to specific developers. Those developers had, in turn, given his wife’s consulting firm a hefty payment of over $150,000 from 2019 to 2021.
As a result, Price now faces three perjury charges and two conflict of interest charges.
But there’s more to the story. Price is also under scrutiny for allegedly receiving almost $34,000 in healthcare benefits for his current wife while still officially married to another woman. This other misstep has earned him five embezzlement charges.
District Attorney George Gascón of Los Angeles County commented on these troubling events. He said, When our elected officials are suspected of wrongdoing, it damages the public’s faith in our government.
He assured that efforts to expose and root out such corruption would continue: We’ll stop at nothing to expose dishonesty and hold those who disappoint the public to account.
Price’s case is one of many of its kind. He is, in fact, the fourth member of the LA City Council to face arrest in recent times. This unsettling trend raises serious questions about the trustworthiness of the city’s government.
Price’s term isn’t due until 2026, and Paul Krekorian, the Council President, wants to suspend him from the Council. However, the city charter states a member can only be removed or replaced if convicted.
In the meantime, Price has stepped down as the president pro tempore and given up his committee duties. While he hasn’t given up his seat, he has said in a letter to Krekorian, I need to focus on clearing my name of these unfounded charges, and I don’t want to distract from the people’s work.
He expressed his desire to keep advocating for South Central, saying, I look forward to continuing to be a strong voice for South Central, a community rich in culture but has often been overlooked and forgotten.
