Orange County: home of the Rat Bastard

AS YOU KNOW, former chair of the Orange County Republican Party and current SOCCCD trustee and Prayer Guy Tom Fuentes has an inveterate fondness for rat bastards, people like Mike “Hey baby” Carona, Tony "Baloney" Rackauckas, Mike “Republican mafia” Schroeder, et al.

One of Tom's rude rodent friends, it seems, is OC Treasurer Chriss Street. Since before Street was elected—elected thanks, in part, to Fuentes’ support—we’ve been hearing about his bold and decisive efforts to enrich himself while trustee of the bankrupt Fruehauf trucking company.

Well, now the Department of Justice has gotten into the act. Meanwhile, Street’s habit of feathering his nest with other people’s money persists.

From this morning's OC Register:

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

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.

…Last year, Street was sued for $7 million by a Los Angeles investment banker for allegedly wasting bankruptcy trust funds. Appointed to liquidate the assets of the bankrupt Fruehauf, Street instead paid himself $250,000 a year, gave himself bonuses worth $175,000 over seven years and billed $477,000 in expenses, said Daniel Harrow, Street's successor as trustee who filed the lawsuit. The expenses included a family vacation to Spain, cosmetic services and gym memberships, the lawsuit says.

Street is mirroring those spending habits in his new job, already racking up $950,754 in construction and furniture costs for an extensive remodel of his department that, when finished, is expected cost more than $1 million. So far, he's built a trading floor for ten people that's furnished with two 52-inch flat-screen TVs. He's also added floor-to-ceiling windows in his glassed-enclosed office, spent more than $45,000 on Herman Miller chairs for employees and built a "Treasurer's Café" where workers can use Eames tables and chairs. A third flat-screen TV for a conference room cost $7,802….

Re the uniquely pious Mr. Tom Fuentes, see also:

Tom’s crowd
Six Degrees of Fuentes Nation
Fuentes: shredded evidence?
“Kill It and Grill It”—Fuentian titles
Trustee Fuentes’ Spanish Adventure

See also Gustavo Arellano’s open letter to Tom Fuentes

Pedro Point, Pacifica, CA, 7:00 p.m. this evening.