{"id":502493,"date":"2010-04-01T16:00:47","date_gmt":"2010-04-01T20:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0133ec6346ca970b"},"modified":"2010-04-01T16:00:47","modified_gmt":"2010-04-01T20:00:47","slug":"grand-jury-indicts-a-top-lausd-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/502493","title":{"rendered":"Grand jury indicts a top LAUSD official"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n

\t \"Students<\/img><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/br>A grand jury has indicted a top Los Angeles Unified School District manager for allegedly funneling business from the district\u2019s massive school-building effort to a company he co-owned, highlighting flaws in the way one of the nation\u2019s largest public-works projects has been overseen.<\/p>\n

The indictment charges Bassam Raslan with nine counts, accusing him of conflict of interest, but it also takes the school district to task for failing to prevent the alleged crime even though it knew of Raslan’s interest in the company.<\/p>\n

\u201cLAUSD knew of this but did not direct Mr. Raslan\u2019s supervisors to take action or implement specific policies to prevent\u201d the conflict, the grand jury said. <\/p>\n

The panel said that \u201cLAUSD senior management did not implement any effective means of preventing conflict of interest other than relying on those committing the crime to self report.\u201d <\/p>\n

The indictment comes three years after a Times investigation raised questions about the ability of Raslan’s company to win lucrative school district <\/a>contracts while he was a high-level manager overseeing the construction program.<\/p>\n

Details about the contracts — including how much money was involved — remained under seal on Thursday, and prosecutors said they could not provide more information about them because state law prevented them from discussing secret grand jury testimony.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\nRaslan\u2019s attorney, Daniel V. Nixon, said his client was a vital member of the district\u2019s construction team and that his supervisors were well aware of his ties to the consulting company TBI Associates. He said the law only applies to conflicts of interest involving employees or officers with a public agency — not contractors — and said Raslan would vigorously fight the charges.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is outraged at the fact that criminal charges have been brought against him,\u201d Nixon said. \u201cMr. Raslan\u2019s conduct at all times was in accord with district policy, was open and fully understood by people at the district.\u201d <\/p>\n

— Andrew Blankstein and Jack Leonard<\/p>\n

Photo: <\/strong>Students head to class at Felicitas and Gonzalo Mendez Learning
\nCenter in Boyle Heights on Nov. 5. The new high school was built to
\nrelieve Roosevelt High School in Boyle Heights of overcrowding. Some
\nMendez students are not fazed by the shift. They see the move as an
\nopportunity to carve a new identity on the Eastside.
\n\t\t\t(Mel
\n Melcon \/ Los Angeles Times<\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n

\t\t\t<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

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A grand jury has indicted a top Los Angeles Unified School District manager for allegedly funneling business from the district\u2019s massive school-building effort to a company he co-owned, highlighting flaws in the way one of the nation\u2019s largest public-works projects has been overseen. The indictment charges Bassam Raslan with nine counts, accusing him of conflict […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-502493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4131"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=502493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/502493\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=502493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=502493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=502493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}