By Daily Press staff
Cody Cluff, the former head of Entertainment Industry Development Corp. that promotes film production in Los Angeles County, was sentenced Monday to three years probation and ordered to pay $80,000 for embezzling public funds, prosecutors announced.
“The lesson of Cody Cluff and the EIDC is a simple one — accountability is indispensable to our system of government,” LA District Attorney Steve Cooley said. “City and county elected officials must be vigilant in overseeing any entity empowered by government to collect and spend public fees and taxes.”
In May, Cluff pleaded no contest to embezzlement and admitted the special allegation that the money he stole was public money. As part of the plea, he agreed to repay $80,000 and was sent to prison for 90 days. The Department of Corrections will assess whether he should remain in prison or be released on probation.
Judge Larry P. Fidler sentenced Cluff after a Department of Corrections report found Cluff was suitable for probation. Cluff was given credit for 136 days of time served in jail and prison.
The Los Angeles County Grand Jury indicted Cluff, 45, of Covina, in August 2003 of embezzling more than $150,000 between Jan. 1, 1996, and Dec. 31, 2002, while Cluff headed EIDC. He resigned after the investigation into the activities of EIDC began.
Prosecutors alleged Cluff spent money on strip clubs, vacation trips including a fantasy baseball camp in the Dominican Republic and personal club memberships. The indictment also alleged he donated thousands of dollars to Covina High School, where his children attended school, and sent money to help establish the Pittsburgh Film Office.
The grand jury indictment, returned Aug. 19 after a two-week hearing and a yearlong investigation, also named EIDC general manager Darryl Seiff in two of the 11 counts for improperly obtaining city of Los Angeles badges. The 38-year-old Seiff, of the Mt. Olympus area, pleaded no contest to one misdemeanor count of forgery and was sentenced in June to three years probation and ordered to pay $1,000 fine.
Investigators conducted a thorough nationwide investigation into the activities of EIDC, including serving search warrants in Pennsylvania with the assistance of Pittsburgh authorities. Throughout the investigation, the D.A.’s office has maintained that EIDC is a public agency and that its funds were public money.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 21, 2004. Read the original PDF.