NFL Failures, EDM Greed and Massive Corruption: The Inside Story of the L.A. Coliseum Scandal

But Lynch and his staff had become public employees, without any instruction on the conflict-of-interest laws that apply to government workers. That confusion would lead to a lot of the trouble to come.

"No one ever sat down with any of us and explained rules or gave us a handbook or what it means now that we're a commission employee," Ron Lederkramer, the Coliseum's chief financial officer, would later tell the commission's investigator.

EDM promoter Reza Gerami

Former Coliseum general manager Pat Lynch

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More About

• Tony Estrada
• Todd DeStefano
• Pat Lynch
• College Basketball
• College Football

For years, Lynch worked night and day to bring the NFL back to the Coliseum. Three mayors — Riordan, Hahn and Villaraigosa — made it their policy that the Coliseum was the only place for pro football in L.A.

Lynch was himself a big NFL fan. He played fantasy football with his staff. As he jetted to owners' meetings, he got an up-close look at the executive ranks of professional sports.

"He would have loved to move up to the NFL," says Paul Mance, who owns a Redondo Beach sports bar with Lynch. "I said, 'You're wasting your time. [The Coliseum] is a shithole.' "

But Lynch could not be discouraged.

"The NFL was a big deal for him," says Yrene Asalde, a longtime events manager. "He worked very hard on that. He ate, drank and breathed the NFL" — leaving day-to-day operations to subordinates.

"He would leave us to our own devices," Asalde says. "He didn't put a lot of effort or interest into what everybody was doing."

The Coliseum nearly landed a team in 1999, only to be outbid by Houston. Further efforts were no more fruitful. And when Roger Goodell became the league's commissioner in 2006, he was noticeably less interested than his predecessor in returning to L.A. It became increasingly clear that if the NFL ever did return, it would not be to the Coliseum.

After the Houston loss, Lynch said he would be around the offices more often. But that didn't happen, employees say. Instead, he became more aloof.

There was one Coliseum contractor with whom he shared a special bond: Tony Estrada, who ran the janitorial services. In 2000, they bought a boat together, a $140,000 Silverton motor yacht called Wild Rose. Other friends couldn't account for the relationship. Lynch was a bit of a drinker, but aside from that he was fundamentally conservative. Estrada, on the other hand, was a paranoid eccentric. He'd had a face-lift, and often claimed to be working for the CIA. Sometimes he would claim to have been at the Bay of Pigs, and would boast that he was "untouchable."

"We would always say, 'What's up with this Tony guy?' " Mance says. "How is he at the Coliseum? He's definitely not competent or qualified. He's like a retard working at Harvard."

Lederkramer, the Coliseum's CFO, believed Estrada was overcharging for his services. But Lynch wouldn't hear of it.

The bond between the men was so strong that when Lynch's NFL hopes died, in 2006, he initially considered taking over Estrada's cleaning business. The idea was to run the business while still managing the Coliseum — a clear conflict of interest. Lynch ran it by Supervisor Yvonne Burke, who told him it was a bad idea, and he dropped it.

Instead, he figured out how to achieve the same ends through surreptitious means. Lynch raised the rate the Coliseum paid Estrada by $1.25 per hour, per worker. Estrada later would tell the Coliseum's investigator that he then agreed to refund the sum to Lynch for "event consulting services." Estrada deposited the money in an account in Miami set up in Lynch's name. Lynch told no one about the arrangement.

Over the next four and a half years, Estrada would deposit $385,000 into Lynch's Miami account. A city controller's audit later found that over much of the same period, Estrada was paid $4.8 million for his work at the Coliseum. Both men benefited, but at the Coliseum's cost.

In late 2009, the CFO sent Lynch an analysis showing that the Coliseum could save $300,000 to $500,000 a year by switching to a different contractor. Lynch just brushed him off.

One other person at the Coliseum had a special relationship with Lynch, and that was Todd DeStefano. Like Lynch, DeStefano was from the East Coast — in his case, Buffalo. Also like Lynch, he was a big-time football fan. Captain of his high school team, in college he interned in the Buffalo Bills' marketing department.

DeStefano came to L.A. in search of big-city opportunities, and first got a job selling season tickets for the Clippers. There, he was seen as a "rising star," says Charlie Arviso, a friend from the Clippers organization.

"He's a good salesman," says another friend, Todd Etting. "He's very personable. He's just always a guy's guy."

DeStefano was 25 when Lynch hired him away from the Clippers and made him an events manager at the Sports Arena and Coliseum. Lynch, then 41, quickly took a liking to the younger man. At Tuesday staff meetings, co-workers noticed that Lynch would praise DeStefano for doing things that were regular duties of his job.

The appreciation ran both ways. Colleagues observed that DeStefano would greet Lynch with, "Hey, boss man."