The FBI is investigating whether Don Perata illegally received money through several intermediaries, two sources said. Subpoenas suggest the possible intermediaries under scrutiny are a former Perata aide, Perata’s two children, a college buddy, and a Sacramento political consultant. Records also show the five have been paid at least $1.39 million from Perata campaigns and committees associated with the state senator since 1998.
Lily Hu — Perata helped launch his former aide and close confidante’s lobbying career in the late ’90s. Since then, she has become the most influential lobbyist in Oakland, representing many of the city’s biggest developers, including the DeSilva Group, Signature Properties, and Forest City, all of whom also have ties to Perata.
Nick Perata — Since 1998, the younger Perata and his companies, Exit Strategies and NRP Productions, grossed at least $910,098 in political consulting work on his father’s campaigns and committees associated with him. Nick also has purchased two homes from his father, totaling $850,000, and paid the elder Perata tens of thousands of dollars in rent for a house and office space in the past five years.
Rebecca Perata-Rosati — Perata-Rosati and her companies, BPR Productions and Vox Populi, were paid at least $61,734 in the past five years by her father’s campaigns and committees associated with him. She and her husband, Michael Rosati, whose name is also on at least two of the federal subpoenas, last year paid Nick $400,000 for an Alameda home Nick bought from the elder Perata two years before.
Timothy G. Staples — Staples and his companies, Staples and Associates and Ascendent Solutions, were paid at least $299,606 in the past five years by Perata campaigns and committees associated with him. Staples, in return, has paid Perata’s consulting company, Perata Engineering, hundreds of thousands of dollars since 2000. Perata also has carried legislation that would have benefited companies that hired Staples, who was Perata’s pal at Saint Mary’s College in the ’60s.
Sandra Polka — This Sacramento-based political consultant has received $108,394 from Perata campaigns and committees associated with him since 2001. Earlier this year, the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Polka as saying she subcontracts work to Perata’s son and son-in-law, as well as Staples’ son. Investigators have subpoenaed records from BART, which inked contracts with Polka last year to do public outreach. She later was hired by the BART’s bond measure campaign, Measure AA. Two years ago, Perata protégé Ignacio De La Fuente, president of Oakland City Council, tapped Polka and a Southern California firm for an $110,000 no-bid contract to redraw Oakland’s seven council district lines.
