Feds investigate O.C. Treasurer!

This Just In…

Treasurer Chriss Street faces federal criminal probe; also, his office remodel has cost nearly $1 million.

By PEGGY LOWE and NORBERTO SANTANA, Jr.
The Orange County Register

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a criminal probe into Orange County Treasurer-Tax Collector Chriss Street’s management of a bankrupt trucking company whose assets he allegedly used for a family vacation, gym memberships and Botox injections.

An Orange County Register investigation also found that Street has racked up nearly $1 million in costs for an elaborate remodel of his office, including a trading floor just outside Street’s new glass-enclosed office. The Register has also learned that Street awarded a $23,000 no-bid county contract to a former colleague involved in the trucking company bankruptcy.

Street said he knew nothing about the federal investigation and called the allegations “preposterous.” He also defended the office expenditures as lifting workers’ morale and productivity and that the contract with a former colleague helped increase recovery collections.

The investigation, which was initially launched by District Attorney Tony Rackauckas last May, was turned over to federal prosecutors at their request, said Susan Schroeder, a Rackauckas spokeswoman.

“The feds wanted that case and we determined it would be best handled by the feds because it had more federal issues than state issues,” she said.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Los Angeles declined comment.

There’s more… Peggy Lowe has the story over at the OCRegister.com.