AG Rob Bonta took campaign donation from casino operator under investigation by his own office

Attorney General Rob Bonta had been in the state’s top law enforcement job for a month when he accepted more than $16,000 in campaign donations from a large Southern California casino called the Bicycle. 

The Bicycle Casino was among several businesses and individuals to contribute precisely $16,200 — the highest amount then allowed by state regulators — to Bonta’s campaign in 2021, as the AG immediately began running to keep his job in the next year’s election. 

But the casino’s donation was unique. It came as federal authorities and officials from the California Bureau of Gambling Control, a division of Bonta’s office, were investigating the Bicycle on suspicion of failing to address money laundering in its cardroom — an allegation that could have resulted in criminal charges or millions of dollars in fines. 

The state’s case was ultimately dropped, and there is no evidence that the Bicycle’s campaign donations shaped Bonta’s law enforcement decisions regarding the casino.

But Bonta’s acceptance of these and other funds tied to people and companies under criminal investigation raises questions about how closely a likely front-runner for governor has monitored potential conflicts of interest, and whether those optics could trail him into future races. 

“The issue here is the appearance —  the fact that you’re taking money from who you’re investigating is going to create concerns in voters’ minds,” said Jim Ross, a political consultant who is not associated with Bonta. “This is the kind of thing that will dog you for the entire time of the campaign.”

For years, law enforcement officials had pored over records involving the Bicycle and one of its high rollers — an unidentified Chinese national who made over $100 million worth of cash transactions at the cardroom from January to July of 2016.

Federal officials in November 2021 announced a $500,000, non-prosecution agreement with the Bicycle in which the cardroom’s operators acknowledged they failed to file proper reports on the high roller’s transactions, in violation of anti-money-laundering laws. 

That same day, Bonta announced that his office would also take “action to protect the public,” and filed a licensing complaint with the state’s gambling control commission against the cardroom, its owner Leo Chu, and its general partners, Thousand Palms Enterprises. 

“The federal government has taken action against Bicycle, and now it’s time to hold the casino accountable for alleged violations of our state laws,” Bonta said in a statement at the time. 

The filing, however, sat dormant for nearly three years, until Bonta’s office quietly dropped the case in October 2024.

In the meantime, the cardroom’s assets were sold for over $100 million, records show. 

The Bicycle and its owners are not the only Bonta donors who have been part of criminal investigations — in this case, by Bonta’s own office. 

Bonta over the last few months has returned at least $230,000 in donations, in what spokespeople described as an abundance of caution to dispel the suggestion of impropriety. 

Among these donors were lawyers for Southern California Edison, whom Politico revealed had given Bonta $72,000 days before the AG announced he wouldn’t pursue criminal charges against the utility company over its role in sparking the 2018 Woolsey Fire. 

The AG returned more than $150,000 given to his campaigns by members of the Duong family and their associates after the FBI raided three properties associated with the family.    

David Duong and his son Andy are among the leaders of Oakland’s longtime recycling contractor, Cal Waste Solutions, and were indicted on bribery charges this month alongside former mayor Sheng Thao and her boyfriend Andre Jones. 

The Duongs, Thao and Jones have all pleaded not guilty. 

Bonta campaign spokesperson Nathan Click said the campaign wasn’t aware of the investigation into the Bicycle at the time of the contributions in May 2021, and stressed that it came just weeks after Bonta had sworn in.

“We have since strengthened our vetting process” for campaign donors, Click said. 

A spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office said the state notified the California Gambling Control Commission the accusations were withdrawn against the Bicycle because of a change in ownership that occurred following the federal settlement. 

“The previous owners-general partners, who were the subject of the federal non-prosecution agreement, no longer own the Bicycle,” the spokesperson said. 

The Bicycle was sold to casino mogul John Park in April 2022, and has since been renamed Parkwest Bicycle Casino. It’s now one of six cardrooms throughout California operating under the Park West Inc. umbrella, where Park is the CEO. 

Park and Park West Casinos donated $16,200 to Bonta’s campaign in May 2021 shortly after he took office as attorney general. They’ve given $33,500 to Bonta’s assembly and AG races since 2017.

A spokesperson for Parkwest Bicycle said the cardroom’s case at the time did not carry over to the new owners when its assets were purchased in April 2022, and that the new owners had no knowledge of previous cases. 

Attorney General’s Office Press Secretary Alexandra Duquet said there has never been an accusation from their office against the casino under its new ownership.

Duquet said it was likely an oversight that the allegations against the previous Bicycle ownership were not withdrawn until 2½ years after the cardroom changed hands. 

State records show that Chu, the Bicycle’s former owner, is the current owner of the Crystal Casino in Compton. The Chronicle was unable to reach him for comment. 

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article included a comment from a DOJ spokesperson that misstated the gambling commission’s role in withdrawing the case. 

Reach Megan Cassidy: megan.cassidy@sfchronicle.com. Reach Rachel Swan: rswan@sfchronicle.com