State and federal officials are investigating contracts for COVID-19 testing at Santa Ana Unified, according to an LAist report published Tuesday. Those contracts, worth over $100 million, were with companies owned by or affiliated with former Anaheim Chamber of Commerce President Todd Ament—a key figure in the City of Anaheim’s corruption scandal.
LAist has reviewed a federal subpoena seeking records for COVID-19 testing at Santa Ana Unified dating back to Aug. 1, 2021. These include documents related to businesses owned by Ament, as well as deals he helped broker.
Three months before the Santa Ana Unified school board approved a no-bid contract with a company tied to Ament, the district got 18 bids from other firms in response to a request for proposals for COVID-19 testing. The district scrapped that effort after the winning bidder sought to renegotiate some of the terms.
Then, shortly before the school year started, Anza Vang, an executive with the Orange County Health Care Agency, recommended Ament to the school district as a testing partner, according to documents obtained by LAist.
A spokesperson for the Orange County Health Care Agency, Ellen Guevara, told LAist in an email that the testing laboratory that got the contract, Diagnostic Laboratory Science (DLS), "was one of a limited number of vendors at the time that were able to offer robust COVID-19 testing.” Ament helped broker the deal with DLS, according to district documents.
Both the U.S. and state attorneys general are investigating the contracts.
In July of last year, Ament pleaded guilty to defrauding a cannabis company, fraudulently obtaining a COVID-19 relief loan, and filing false tax returns. You can read more about those charges here.