A day after the FBI searched properties tied to San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagman, Ontario Councilmember Alan Wapner, West Covina media executive James Su and attorney Frank Lizarraga, public records reveal political, business and civic ties among the four men.
Su apparently has had ties with Hagman dating back at least a dozen years. As a state assemblymember, Hagman sponsored a resolution in the Assembly declaring Dec. 26, 2012, as “James Su Day” in California.
Additionally, campaign finance records show Su donated $3,500 to Hagman’s supervisorial campaign from September 2021 to March 2026. Su’s EDI Media donated $4,000 to the campaign from October 2017 to February 2022, according to records. The amounts are minuscule compared to what Hagman and other county supervisors typically raise during election cycles. For example, Hagman raised almost $272,000 from January to May 19 this year.
There’s no record of Su or EDI donating to Wapner’s campaign.
Lizarraga donated $1,000 to Hagman in March 2022, filings show. Records also indicate Hagman’s campaign paid Lizarraga roughly $2,700 for office expenses that same year.
Su’s EDI Media Inc. registered in California in 1993 and incorporated on March 18, 2002, as a stock corporation, with a registered address on San Bernardino Road in West Covina, which the FBI raided along with Su’s home on Mount Tricia Avenue.
Su’s attorney on Wednesday defended his client, adding that the FBI has not given him nor his client any information after the raid at Su’s home on Tuesday.
“Unfortunately, I have no information as to why the FBI decided to search his home and his business,” said Andrew Cowan, Su’s attorney.
The operation at Su’s West Covina residence was a surprise.
“He was at his residence when the FBI showed up with a large squad of heavily armed agents,” Cowan said. “And they ordered him, his wife, his daughter and his two 7-year-old twin sons and two grandmothers who live there and who are in their 80s, outside in the sun while they conducted the search.”
On Wednesday, all appeared quiet at Hagman’s property. A round monument sign outside the front gate said “The Hagman Ranch” arcing over the top, “est. 2020” at the bottom, and “Rossana Ranch” in the middle. Rossana is the name of Hagman’s wife. American and U.S. Army flags fluttered on a flagpole on the property.
Neighbor Fabian Serrato said he looked out his window at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday to see a bevy of cars lined up along Biscayne Street in front of Hagman’s home, and FBI agents clad in vests entering his property. He said the agents remained at the property until about 5 p.m. Tuesday.
“We were surprised. We’ve known them in the neighborhood, like everybody, for years. They were good neighbors,” Serrato said.
For his part, Lizarraga has ties to a $5.3 million sublease agreement with El Prado Development, LLC to operate El Prado Golf Course at Prado Regional Park in Chino. The Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to approve the sublease last year and Lizarraga was identified in the contract as a managing member of El Prado Development. Supervisor Paul Cook was the lone dissenting vote.
The Chino Hills Champion reported that Lizarraga’s partner at El Prado Development, Phyllis Shih, was one of the owners/developers of “The Rincon” retail center in Chino Hills.
The FBI also served a search warrant at Ontario International Airport on Tuesday. Airport spokesman Steve Lambert said the Airport Authority was served with a federal grand jury subpoena for records.
The Ontario International Airport Authority is a joint powers authority established in 2012 by the city of Ontario and San Bernardino County to oversee the management, development, operations and marketing of Ontario International Airport. Wapner serves as the president and Hagman as vice president of its Board of Commissioners.
Ontario Mayor Paul Leon, who is running against Wapner for mayor of Ontario in the November general election, did not return a phone call Wednesday seeking comment on the FBI investigation and Wapner’s implication in it.
Su’s company also owns icitynews.com, which publishes articles ranging from local news to entertainment.
According to a 2015 report in The Guardian, Su’s firm was the focus of FCC and Justice Department investigations into U.S. radio broadcasts backed by a subsidiary of the Chinese government. Those probes came in response to a report that highlighted an alleged covert radio network that broadcasted in more than a dozen American cities.
The issue of Chinese influence in local politics has gained increased scrutiny of late in Southern California.
Former Arcadia Mayor Eileen Wang, 58, resigned from the city’s City Council on May 11, after federal authorities charged her with acting as an illegal agent of the Chinese government, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Federal law requires foreign agents to notify the U.S. attorney general.
Wang, along with Yaoning “Mike” Sun, 65, of Chino Hills, operated the U.S. News Center, a website claiming to be a news source for local Chinese Americans. From 2020 through 2022, Wang and Sun received and executed “directives” to post content on the website from government officials within the People’s Republic of China.
Cowan reiterated that his client is an American citizen, and acknowledged that in the past he has made contributions to Hagman.
“They were all publicly disclosed and completely lawful,” he said, adding that they were within legal contribution limits.
No arrests have been made during the FBI investigation.
West Covina Councilmember Tony Wu, who says he met Su in 2015 when he was knocking on doors for his election campaign, recalls that after he got elected to the City Council, Wu and the late Councilmember Lloyd Johnson were interviewed several times at Su’s EDI Media Inc. studios. Wu and Johnson attended Su’s trademark Chinese American Film Festival in Los Angeles for a couple of years, he said.
Su served as president of the Chinese American Association of West Covina in 2020-2021, a group Wu and his wife are involved in. And when Wu was appointed mayor in September 2019, Su and his media company donated $10,000 to help him fulfill a campaign promise of starting afterschool programs in West Covina.
As the COVID-10 pandemic spread in 2020, Wu said, Su and his media company stepped in with donations of PPEs and food.
“I don’t have any ill feelings with him at all,” Wu said. “I want to emphasize he was the first president of the Chinese American Association, he helped start it, he donated a lot to help kids and he and his family did a lot of charity.”
Once Su’s term ended at the Chinese American association, his priorities took him away from further involvement with the city, Wu said.
“He was busy with his media thing, and I was busy with city things,” Wu said.
“He is my resident. I hope he is innocent,” Wu said. “We’re not here to cast stones. He did help the community a lot.”
Wu added he wanted to emphasize the Asian American community in West Covina, and in the San Gabriel Valley, should not be vilified nor fear talk of corruption or foreign influence.
“Chinese Americans, Asian Americans in my community, I cannot thank them more,” Wu said. “People from China who have connections, they helped the most during the pandemic. People have to understand beside the political fights, people try to help each other.”
Staff Writers Anissa Rivera, Allyson Vergara, Jeff Horseman and Ellen Wang contributed to this story.