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But making clients understand the need for a tax agent's services could be a challenge, so Salari found a shortcut. Jim Jochimsen, an assessor's representative, figured out that Salari's firm had been filing appeals without the approval of property owners.
The Assessment Appeals Board responded by requiring a client's signature on all applications. Even that proved no guarantee: One of Salari's partners had to be reprimanded for signing a client's name and then lying about it.
John Noguez raised more than $1 million for his 2010 campaign for county assessor. His opponent raised just $40,000.
John Noguez
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Salari declined the Weekly's request for an interview.
In a legal filing, he bragged that he had been able to "streamline" the appeals process and make it "highly profitable."
He bought a 6,000-square-foot house in Arizona and developed a taste for sports cars. He once wrote to a car magazine, praising the new Porsche Boxster, and later became fond of Ferraris. He uses "myf430spider" as his personal email address. (His wife's email address refers to another Ferrari: "my360modena.")
With success, however, came family strife. A dispute over an unpaid commission in 2000 prompted Salari to sue his cousin, Leo Goodwin, for slander. According to the suit, Goodwin had taken to calling Salari a "thief," a "crook," a "liar" and a "charlatan."
Salari countered that Goodwin was trying to blackmail him, and was impugning Salari's "well-known reputation for honesty and fair dealing."
In fact, most appraisers hate working with Salari, and some competitors believe he gives their industry a bad name.
"He overcharges," said Wes Nichols, another tax agent. "He overpromises. And I don't know how he was getting some of the reductions he was getting."
Salari has been accused of failing to turn over subpoenaed evidence. At a recent tax hearing, representatives of the assessor's office complained that Salari had withheld a five-year operational budget for an apartment building. Under questioning, Salari admitted that he had failed to disclose certain revenue streams that would have pushed the valuation higher.
Salari also is known for browbeating appraisers who balk at his demands, and for going over their heads. Jochimsen said that Salari would issue threats, such as, "If you don't go this value, I'll go up to the third floor, and you'll be taken care of."
On one occasion last year, Salari pushed for a 51 percent decline on a commercial building, which had been purchased and appraised just the year before. The appraiser on the case was appalled, arguing it was impossible for the value to fall so far in one year. Salari dug up a case in which a property fell 62 percent in 15 months, and forwarded it to the appraiser.
"I believe your unprofessional and rude conduct that day was inexcusable," Salari wrote, copying the message to several top-level supervisors.
In another case, an appraiser told one of Salari's clients that he didn't need to hire an agent to get a reduction, because it would be automatic. In a rage, Salari went directly to Noguez.
"Is it the practice of your office to have [principal appraisers] meeting with property owners already represented by authorized tax agents?" he wrote.
Salari has been known to boast of his connections to Noguez. Attorneys for two of Salari's clients told the Weekly that he claimed to be able to get deals no one else could get, thanks to his access.
The tax agent business has become much more competitive than it was in 1992. Commissions have dropped substantially, to as little as 20 percent or less. Yet Salari still charges 50 percent. Other tax agents believe he can only justify that fee by claiming to have special connections.
While some of that surely is Salari's sales pitch, there is some truth to it as well.
At a recent tax hearing, an Assessment Appeals Board member announced that Salari had contributed to his bid for Montebello City Council.
"If anybody here is uncomfortable with that, let me know," said the board member, Jack Hadjinian, who took $5,000 from Salari. "I assure everybody here I will not let that impede my decision today."
The assessor's representative, Tony Stearns, did not ask Hadjinian to recuse himself.
"The assessor does not have a problem with that," he said.
Indeed, it would be awfully hypocritical if the assessor did have a problem. Salari has supported Noguez's political career from the very beginning.
John Noguez has a lot of friends. A social butterfly, he's generally well liked. But even supporters say he has a blind spot for people who might want to take advantage of his friendship.
"At times, his niceness may have worked against him, because everyone considered him a friend," said Gary Townsend, his former chief deputy.
Though he was born in Los Angeles, Noguez spent the first six years of his life in Mexico. His mother brought him to Boyle Heights, and he attended Roosevelt High School and Cal State L.A.
When he was 20, Noguez took an internship at the assessor's office. He became an appraiser and, over the next 27 years, developed a focus on L.A.'s historic downtown.
His personality destined him for politics. In 2003, he ran for Huntington Park City Council, on a slate with two allies. On the day before the election, his allies received a donation of mailers worth $15,000 from a "businessman" — tax agent Ramin Salari.
19 comments
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hello my name is tirso rodriguez i have a problem in 2007 i person led is on made me make plans he said we where going to build on our property 1810 -1804 s vermont los angeles ca 90006 so i added my brother on the title i purshased the property for 320000 .00 dollars my property taxes where loan fair now there is a power to sell my property iv been here for 17 years this was our dream for our family as a car dealer now i am loosing it because someone lied to us we never built i was cond for about ten thousand dollars please help me pay the right amount to clear this matter or lead me in the right dirrection
Wow, John Noguez and Ramin Salari are two more Frank McCourts, only in the L.A. Tax Accessor's office.
Wish you would investigate LA County Dept. of Public Works. Little fiefdom gives their division heads and officers FREE leased cars of their choice, which they drive to and from work in orange county and beyond, they also get FREE GAS, as well as FREE car cleaning and washes performed by county employees for their personal/public vehicles. Many of these division heads live in Orange County and the Valley. Why are public servants given free gas and cars to drive to and from work? That is something they do in fortune 500 companies, not public agencies. I guess when you have a billion dollar budget managers can give themselves raises and have their personal vehicles paid for with County taxes.
How about reporting it to the LA County fraud hotline? I'm a LA County employee and I drive my own vehicle for County business. Managers make it difficult to get A county vehicle. It's not fair division heads to take cars home with free gas and free cleaning. THE ABUSE MUST STOP!
Wow seems like the Assessor's office is not the only entity who is greedy. The news sources here are acting like desperate children needing attention. OK so some attribution should have been forthcoming, but perhaps in an attempt to protect your identity you were LEFT OUT. Why not publish a breaking story on your own? How about looking into a corrupt judicial system here? I for one have had been victimized by judicial lying and file tampering. Our court system is likely in really bad shape in terms of corruption. Los Angeles has always been known as tops for cutthroat scaming. I suggest we worry about all the trees that have been cut down. Who profited from that? We have no shade and no oxygen.
County Fraud is ramped: Supervisor / DA/ DPW/ DRP/ CAL BAR it's all exposed here. West Hollywood mayor they are all bought out... this guy forgot to blow somebody before the left in the morning with his boy friend caught driving his car.
That mark schenter seems like a real charlatan ! I wouldn't be surprised if he were taking kickbacks on his own accord!!! Cancer research??? Come on ! How low can you get????
I wonder what retired Los Angeles County Assessor Rick Auerbach thinks about his endorsement of Current Assessor John Noguez as his replacement.
- TK
The corruption of the Assessment Appeals process in L.A. County was well under way on Rick Auerbach's watch. It was only EXPOSED after Noguez took office after the 2010 election.
Great story. No political or economic system can survive rampant corruption. While this article deals with the County Assessor's Office, similar corruption plagues all of Los Angeles, especially the Los Angeles City Council. LA Weekly has already done some of the work in this area, but a lot more needs to be done.
Even in yesterday's State of the City speech, we see the Mayor trying to find ways to funnel millions of tax dollars to his political cronies under one scam or another. It seems that the major distinction between this penny ante corruption in the Assessor's Office and City Hall's mega corruption is that there is dissent within the Assessor's office while the corrupt City Council votes together more than 99.3% of the time. Just the unspoken City Council rule that all members will retaliate against any councilmember who does not support the corruption in another district is a serious breach of the public trust. The 99.3% statistic alone was enough for the DA to launch a RICO investigation, but let's be real -- Cooley care about corruption? Ha!
Bad as the Assessor's corruption may be, it comes not enter into the truly vile realm of the deliberate falsification of fire response times so that the City Council could cut $200 M from the LAFD budget while continuing to give millions of dollars to Eli Broad, CIM Group and other developers. The LA City Council willingly traded lives for dollars.
give it rest Hews. so annoying. We all know you broke the story...woopee...now i never want to read LCCN or anything by randy economy cuz you sound so desperate...i hope you go bankrupt... and, i'm actually on your side on this story. maybe if someone gives you a trophy you'll calm down?
Nice job Gene, you think you could have attributed Los Cerritos Community Newspaper since we first gave you the lead in February that the DA was investigating Noguez? You would not even have known about all this if it was for LCCN and Randy Economy.
I always thought it was fishy that both Hiward Jarvis and the unions were endorsing Noguez. Now I know why. While you can be collaborative ultimately the tax agent has to prove their case. Instead of spending time doing their homework they pay off the Assessor and go to parties instead.
GOOD!!! Thank you LA WEEKLY!!!I just want to add few comments, guys like Mark McNeil, Andrew Stephens, Eric Haagenson, Carlos, and JOHN NOGUEZ should be in jail for stealing public money.From my understanding son of the LA County Supervisor Knabe was running Noguez Assessor's campaign. Four members of the LA County Board of Supervisors Molina, Yaroslavsky, and others (not Antonovich) were endorsing John Noguez.Having so many FACTS it is surprise Board of Supervisors didn't ask John Noguez to RESIGN and PUNISH OTHERS. WHY???They are still FREE. What about DISTRICT ATTORNEY OFFICE? They should take action!!!
Sad to say, in Los Angeles County, the role of the District Attorney is to look the other way no matter how blatant the corruption. Councilmember Tom LaBonge ran the worldwide fraudulent SAVE the SIGN campaign to raise millions to give to a developer for the virtually worthless Cahuenga Peak. It has nothing to do with the Hollywood Sign.
When it was clear that no one would give the millions of dollars that Football Tommy wanted to shovel into Fox River Financials' pockets for Cahuenga Peak, TPL and CD 4 devised the fraudulent scam that the Hollywood Sign on Mt. Lee was in danger. Even their post victory video falsely states that "Cahuenga Peak is the home of the Hollywood Sign!"
Fraud has become a way of life and Angelenos do not blink an eye. LaBonge involved Hollywood school children in his worldwide Bait and Switch scam and no parent complained that his/her child was being taught how to be a criminal. The students in Hollywood know that the H Sign is on Mt Lee and not on Cahuenga Peak. Thus, they learned that if you want $, it is OK to lie. "Our teachers and councilman told us it was OK to lie to get money."
We saw this dishonesty on display again at the City PLUM on Tuesday 4-17-12 when Huizar did not like a citizen's poster of the Millennium Tower next to Capitol Records, and he asked Kevin Keller to say that the picture was "misleading." Kevin Keller told the TRUTH and said it was not misleading. Thereupon, Councilmember Reyes says to Mr. Keller, "So you're saying that this picture is misleading," trying to lead the truthful Keller into providing false testimony. The entire audience caught his dishonest ploy -- as did Mr. Keller who stuck to the truth!!!
Angelenos do not understand that corruption is virtually ubiquitous among Los Angeles elected officials and department heads, yet the DA never notices anything.
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