A RICO suit naming as defendant (among others) Joseph L. Dunn, a former California State Senator who represented central Orange County, was filed in federal court.
The suit, advanced by Marina Del Rey-based community activist Daniel Dydzak, alleges that the former senator engaged in predicate acts of racketeering through and by means of obstruction of justice, money laundering, and myriad acts of fraud.
The action seeks monetary and equitable remedies.
Dunn, a democrat, was elected to the California State Senate in 1998 and served until 2006. He is the former chief executive of the California Medical Association who together with former Democratic Sen. Martha Escutia established The Senators (Ret.) Firm.
A somewhat controversial figure, Dunn has been embroiled in separate controversies dealing with various not for profit entities, to wit, CaliforniaALL, Voice of OC, and UCI Foundation.
In September of 2009, with the help of attorneys Thomas Girardi (of Girardi & Keese) Jim Brosnahan (of Morrison & Foerster) and Erwin Chemerinsky (of UC Irvine) Joe Dunn and Martha Escutia launched a not-for-profit entity known as "Orange County Nonprofit Investigative News Agency," which operates an online publication under the name "Voice of OC" (located at www.voiceofoc.org) headed by Norberto Santana and David Washburn.
On September 1, 2011, Orange County's Nonprofit Investigative News Agency / Voice of OC were duly served with a request for production of IRS Form 990.
To date, this request to produce Voice of OC's tax returns has been ignored, despite the clear mandate by the U.S. Department of Treasury and Internal Revenue Service to fully comply with such requests within 30 days.
