Beverly Hills Developer Allegedly Paid Off LA County Employee

BEVERLY HILLS, CA – A well-known real estate developer, Arman Gabaee, of Beverly Hills, was arrested at his home Wednesday morning on federal bribery charges for allegedly paying monthly bribes to a Los Angeles County employee. Gabee bribed a county employee for six years and submitted offers to purchase the employee a Santa Rosa home for nearly $1.1 million in exchange for the developer obtaining a $45 million county lease, according to the Department of Justice. Gabaee, known professionally as Arman Gabay, is expected to make his initial Los Angeles federal court appearance this afternoon.

Gabaee is the co-founder and co-managing partner of the Charles Company, a Hollywood-based real estate development firm. According to the complaint, the employee, who is not named and is cooperating with the FBI, negotiated leases for the county to rent office space from private parties and had “significant autonomy to contractually bind the county,” according to the DOJ.

The complaint alleges that he paid the employee cash bribes of $1,000 or more every month for six years “in exchange for county leases, non-public information, and other benefits.” Gabaee paid the employee thousands of dollars during covertly recorded meetings in late 2016 and early 2017, according to the complaint.

In 2017, Gabaee allegedly offered to purchase a million-dollar Northern California residence for the county employee in exchange for the employee’s assistance securing a county lease in the Hawthorne Mall, which he was redeveloping. Gabaee wanted the county to enter into a 10-year, $45 million lease to rent space in the Hawthorne Mall for the Department of Public Social Services and other county departments, according to the complaint.

“Business leaders who use their wealth and influence to corrupt our government are a scourge on our community,” United States Attorney Nicola T. Hanna said. “No one, no matter how prominent or wealthy, is above the law.”

Gabaee allegedly offered the bribes during recorded meetings between himself and the county employee, as well as in phone conversations intercepted based on federal wiretap orders, according to the DOJ. He offered the county employee even bigger bribes in the future, saying it would only get "better" if the employee continued to help him secure other county contracts, according to prosecutors.

According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation investigation and intercepted communications, Gabaee was taking numerous steps to locate the Northern California property in 2017 as leverage to get the employee's help in obtaining the county lease, according to the complaint. Gabaee ultimately chose a home on eight acres of land in Santa Rosa wine country that was listed for $1,095,000. Gabaee allegedly told an associate to “make the offer” on the home “ASAP” as a bribe for the employee without ever seeing the property himself, according to the DOJ.

Intercepted communications allegedly showed Gabaee taking steps to try to disguise his ownership interest in the property, telling the associate that the offer on the property could not be in his name and that he wanted to conceal his ownership interest in the property through some type of entity, according to the DOJ.

Gabaee allegedly placed two offers on the Santa Rosa residence in April 2017: one for $1,035,000 and then later for $1,065,000. FBI agents immediately approached him and told him they were aware of the bribe arrangements, according to the complaint, and his latest offer on the property was withdrawn hours later.

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