Wave Wire Services
LOS ANGELES — A former member of the Compton City Council was sentenced to a year and six months behind bars for his role in a bribery scheme.
Isaac Galvan, 39, pleaded guilty in December in downtown Los Angeles to one count each of bribery concerning programs receiving federal funds and tax evasion.
Along with the federal prison term, Galvan was ordered to pay restitution of $323,557, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
According to his plea agreement, Galvan — who served on the Compton City Council from 2013 until May 2022 — bribed Ricardo Pacheco when Pacheco was a Baldwin Park City Council member with $70,000 for the permits.
Pacheco pleaded guilty in June 2020 to a federal bribery charge unrelated to the marijuana-permit scheme and agreed to cooperate in the government’s public corruption probe.
Pacheco received the same prison sentence. Along with prison, Pacheco was ordered to pay a $10,000 fine and forfeiture of $219,755. Restitution will be determined at a later date.
Co-defendant Yichang Bai, 52, of Arcadia, owner-operator of import-export business W&F International and a Galvan consulting client, pleaded guilty to a federal charge and was sentenced last month to one year and eight months in prison.
The marijuana permits case stems from June 2017, when Baldwin Park began permitting the cultivation, manufacture and distribution of marijuana within its city limits. Soon afterward, Pacheco began soliciting bribes from businesses seeking marijuana development agreements and related permits in the city, according to court documents.
In exchange for the illicit payments, Pacheco agreed to use his position in city government to assist the companies with obtaining marijuana permits, including voting in their favor, federal prosecutors said.
According to the indictment, Galvan first paid Pacheco a $10,000 bribe in August 2017 to secure Pacheco’s support for a future consulting client’s marijuana permit.
After securing W&F as a client, Galvan facilitated $70,000 in bribes from Bai to Pacheco, prosecutors said.
Pacheco, 63, of Baldwin Park, served on Baldwin Park’s City Council from 1997 until his resignation in June 2020.
Galvan paid the bribes in exchange for Pacheco’s political support and promise to deliver Baldwin Park’s approval of marijuana permits for W&F, prosecutors said. Pacheco then delivered, voting in favor of W&F’s marijuana permit and later voting in favor of Bai’s bid to relocate its operations, court papers show.
In a separate case, Pacheco pleaded guilty in June 2020 to one count of bribery for accepting tens of thousands of dollars in bribes — including $20,000 in cash — from a Baldwin Park police officer working at the FBI’s direction, in exchange for the then-council member’s political support of the Baldwin Park Police Association’s contract with the city.
