Kevin Shelley still has his job do you have yours? Its time for a SunsetGate update! In the week since SFists hard-hitting book report about the strange fundraising transactions between Shelley and one of his top donors, Julie Lee, the dominoes continue to fall. Last Tuesday, the feds seized the remainder of the $500,000 grant given to Julie Lees "community" group, the San Francisco Neighbors Resource Center, for failure to comply with their request to provide documentation showing how they used the money. The San Francisco real estate division has also begun an audit of the Neighbors Resource Center to see if theyre complying with the terms of their city lease. If not, the lease could be terminated.
Mayor Newsom, for his part, returned $2000 that Julie Lee donated to his campaign and has contacted all 120 donors who attended a party thrown by Julie Lee in 2003 to ask if they were the true source of the funds donated at that time. Curiously, the person announcing this on behalf of Newsom, Eric Jaye, was also Shelleys campaign manager for his secretary of state race (though he had left the campaign by the time these odd contributions started rolling in scroll down on the link for more info on that).
The California real estate licensing board has also announced that it has opened an inquiry into Lees, um, unconventional business practices, to the extent they involve laundering money through third party down payments and other property transactions.
