Former South Gate Treasurer Albert Robles was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years in federal prison for plundering more than $20 million from the small, working-class city.
A federal judge handed down the sentence after Robles said in an impassioned speech that he had acted "immorally" during his years as leader of South Gate, but never broke the law.
"There are different levels of hoodwinking, but I didn't think hoodwinking was a crime," Robles said. "During that period I decided not to be a very good man every day. But I did not decide to be a criminal."
At times teary-eyed, Robles, 41, said he managed to make people think he was an "all powerful being in the city," but that he did not really wield such power.
But Judge Stephen V. Wilson said he found the man who once boasted of being "the King of South Gate" to be a "puppet master" who controlled a corrupt enterprise that preyed on the city's coffers and residents.
Wilson seemed incredulous at Robles' defense. When Robles' attorney argued that what the ex-treasurer did was business as usual in California politics, the judge responded that "what you have just said is among the most absurd things I have ever heard."
Three other Robles allies -- former trash hauler Michael Klistoff, nursery owner George Garrido and New Jersey financial consultant Edward Espinoza -- were also sentenced for their roles in the fraudulent schemes.
The sentencing caps a six-year saga that came to symbolize problems with public malfeasance and backroom deals in the small towns of Southeast L.A. County. Earlier this year, Paul Richards, the former mayor of Lynwood, next door to South Gate, was sentenced to 16 years in federal prison for public corruption.
Prosecutors said Tuesday that Robles' sentence sent a message.
"He turned South Gate into a pay-to-play city," said federal prosecutor David Vaughn. "I think this is the beginning of a new day in South Gate."
A federal grand jury in 2004 indicted Robles on 39 counts of money laundering, bribery, wire fraud and public corruption, alleging that he used his elected office and political influence to funnel money from city projects to family and friends between 1998 and 2003.
