A San Francisco developer must pay more than $1 million in fines after illegally excavating beneath hillside homes and lying to city officials.
Developer Kevin O’Connor has been ordered by San Francisco Superior Court Judge Garrett Wong to fork over nearly $1.1 million in civil penalties after digging under two Miraloma Park homes in a landslide zone without permits and repeatedly lying about it to city officials, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
“Every material assertion that [O’Connor] advanced in his testimony was either impeached by his words or contradicted by credible evidence,” Wong wrote in the decision. “The evidence shows his proclivity for deceit and opportunity, even under oath.”
O’Connor violated city building and planning codes, as well as California’s Unfair Competition Law and State Housing Law, by digging under homes at 147 and 107 Marietta Drive in Miraloma Park to double square footage and add a retaining wall, the judge found. Wong also issued an injunction demanding O’Connor address all remaining code violations to bring the properties into legal compliance.
O’Connor “intentionally defrauded the City and put San Franciscans in danger” while overseeing construction projects, City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement.
O’Connor bought the two single-family homes with the intention of flipping them. In an effort to double the square-footage and add a retaining wall, he excavated in a landslide hazard area that requires extra seismic review to ensure safety.
Those illegal digs destabilized the hillside and compromised the property’s foundation on three sides. It also damaged the adjacent property at 151 Marietta Drive, which shared a foundation with 147 Marietta.
“He recklessly excavated under homes without a permit in order to turn a quick profit,” City Attorney David Chiu said in a statement.
To try to offload the properties, O’Connor allegedly put together “a web of fraudsters who did his bidding to quickly flip these properties and turn a profit,” Chiu said.
That group included former San Francisco Building Inspection Commission president Rodrigo Santos, who settled a $1.4 million fraud case with the city in July after serving 20 months in federal prison for bank fraud, honest services fraud, falsifying records and tax evasion.
O’Connor said he was not involved with the corruption at the Department of Building Inspection, instead claiming he was a victim of it.
“Everything I did was under [Department of Building Inspection] scrutiny and all rules were followed,” he told the Chronicle, acknowledging that he did excavate before a permit was granted. “The city is using me as a scapegoat and it is destroying me.”
O’Connor plans to call for a new trial on claims of irregularities in the proceedings preventing a fair trial, errors in law, newly discovered evidence, misconduct and conflicts of interest, and excessive and unlawful penalties.
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