Ex-Rosemead Mayor Pleads Guilty in Federal Bribery Case

The ex-mayor of Rosemead and former California Assembly candidate has agreed to plead guilty to a charge of soliciting and accepting more than $10,000 in bribes from a developer in exchange for city approval of a development project.

John Tran, 36, was named in a criminal information filed Friday in United States District Court.

Tran first approached the developer, who was working as an FBI informant, at Rosemead City Hall, according to court documents. The developer made a series of cash payments to the former mayor totaling $7,000 in 2005 and 2006.

The developer’s business partner wrote a $3,200 check to Tran in 2007, according to court documents.

“During the time that the CI made payments to defendant, the CI’s planning and building proofs were pending approval before the city,” according to the statement of facts in Tran’s plea agreement.

Tran “occasionally informed the CI that the CI’s project was ‘there,’ and that he was ‘not going anywhere.’”

The developer believed that in order to get his project approved, he would have to pay a bribe to Tran in a quid pro quo, according to court documents that were based on the informant’s conversations with Tran.

“The CI’s project would not be approved if the CI refused to pay defendant,” court documents state.

After the payments were made, Tran was voted out of office, and the city never approved the project.

Tran was elected to the Rosemead City Council in 2005 and was Mayor of Rosemead from 2007 to 2009.

Tran faces up to 10 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine.

Tran is expected to appear in court on Feb. 21.

The 36-year-old from Saigon was Rosemead's first Asian-American mayor to be elected to the post in 2007. He served as mayor until 2009.

He was also a school board member with the El Monte Union High School District, a post he resigned in February 2011.

He also withdrew his candidacy for the California State Assembly's 49th district.

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