Former Bell city manager Robert Rizzo set up a secret multi-million-dollar pension fund, according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.
The newspaper reported Tuesday the funds set up by Rizzo and his assistant, Angela Spaccia, were worth about $4.5 million.
The two pension plans were organized in addition to their normal payments from the state. Members of Bell's new city council said they plan to look into recovering some or all of the money to help erase the city's debt.
Rizzo's attorney, James Spertus, has denied that his client set up his own retirement plan. The former city official is facing more than 50 felony counts of fraud and corruption after being accused of being the ringleader of an embezzlement scam that almost bankrupted the city.
His trial is pending.
