consulting

As a Los Angeles City Council aide, Jose Ugarte failed to disclose years worth of outside income he made from lobbying and consulting — and, as a result, was prepared to pay a fine.

But the city’s Ethics Commission has now rejected a $17,500 settlement agreement with the council candidate. Two commissioners said the fine was not quite large enough.

“We need to signal that this is a serious violation,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, the president of the commission, who voted against the settlement.

Ugarte is deputy chief of staff to Curren Price and is running to replace his longtime boss on the City Council. Price has endorsed him. But the council aide failed to report outside income from his consulting firm, Ugarte & Associates, for the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, according to Ethics Commission documents.

He said the failure to report the outside income was a “clerical reporting error.”

Although two of the commissioners want a steeper fine against Ugarte, the suggested bump isn’t that large.

Two commissioners voted in favor of the $17,500 settlement, but Kulkarni and another commissioner, Terry Kaufmann, agreed the settlement amount should be around $20,000.

It’s an amount that they believe could send a clearer message.

“There is great concern about what is happening in Los Angeles. … Individuals routinely violate the laws we put in place to ensure trust,” Kulkarni said.

Kaufmann added that she was concerned by the fact that Ugarte still worked for a council member and was running for office.

The proposed settlement with Ugarte included seven counts against him, and each comes with a potential $5,000 penalty. But since Ugarte was cooperative, the commission’s director of enforcement reduced the overall penalty by 50%, bringing it down from $35,000 to the $17,500 figure.

Ugarte told The Times that his work with Ugarte & Associates never overlapped with his time in Price’s office.

He started working for Price in 2013 but left the office in 2019. He returned in 2021. Ugarte & Associates was formed in 2018 and still conducts business. He co-owns the company with his sister.

Ian Roberts, superintendent of the Des Moines, Iowa, public school system, was arrested by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement last week. The district announced it will file suit against the consulting firm that recommended him for the job. Photo courtesy of ICE.

Oct. 3 (UPI) — The Des Moines Public Schools plans to file a lawsuit against a consulting firm that recommended former superintendent Ian Roberts, who was detained by immigration officials.

JG Consulting is the superintendent search firm that helped the district find and vet potential candidates. The board paid $41,000 to JG Consulting.

The district said in a news release it claims breach of contract for failing to properly vet Roberts “and referred Roberts for consideration even though he could not lawfully hold the position.” It also claims negligence for presenting Roberts “as a suitable and viable candidate when he was not.”

The Des Moines Register’s own investigation found Roberts did not earn a doctorate from Morgan State, which he claimed. He also claimed he attended the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and MIT had no record of his enrollment. He claimed he was awarded the Washington, D.C., “Principal of the Year” from George Washington University, which doesn’t exist.

JG Consulting CEO James Guerra wrote in a statement this week that another company, Baker-Eubanks, conducted a “comprehensive background review” of Roberts, the Des Moines Register reported.

“All required employment procedures were completed by DMPS prior to his appointment,” Guerra wrote. “As always, the authority to hire and oversee the Superintendent rests solely with the school board.”

Roberts was born in Guyana and came to the United States for college in 1999. He claimed he went on to get a Ph.D. and became a teacher and school administrator. He said he has worked in education for 20 years and had jobs in Maryland, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

He was arrested on Sept. 26 “in possession of a loaded handgun, $3,000 in cash and a fixed blade hunting knife,” an ICE press release said. It said when his car was approached by officers, he sped away. “Roberts has existing weapon possession charges from Feb. 5, 2020. Roberts entered the United States in 1999 on a student visa and was given a final order of removal by an immigration judge in May of 2024.”

The district is requesting a jury trial with damages for reputational harm, superintendent pay and costs related to additional hiring processes, The Register reported.

Roberts is now in the Polk County Jail on a U.S. Marshals hold.

Joseph Giarraputo, the Founder and Editorial Director of Global Finance, talks to Arjo Haksteen, Surecomp’s Head of Solution Consulting, about how cloud-based digital transformation is reshaping trade finance and the ecosystem of banks, corporates and cloud providers.

Selected by Global Finance as Best Trade Finance Software Provider for the third consecutive year, Surecomp is well-positioned to capitalise on this shift.

Haksteen explains that banks want to digitise processes to improve the customer experience by deploying new features and more personalised services and delivering them faster. Yet ‘anytime, anywhere’ solutions require real-time data insights, unlocking the potential of modern technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain. 

Digitisation drives greater cost efficiency, scalability and standardised software. This in turn makes trade finance solutions easier to scale and quicker to bring to market, and also enhances integration across various trade platforms and solutions. 

By using reputable cloud service providers that have invested in the right infrastructure, compliance and monitoring capabilities, solution providers with rigorous protocols and controls, like Surecomp, can guarantee date protection andconfidentiality via a robust security and risk framework.

“The revolution of AI and machine learning will continue to go beyond our imagination, and we will see practical applications of blockchain and DLT technology,” says Haksteen. Widespread adoption of paperless digital trades and end-to-end digital workflows will lead to greater interoperability between different platforms and market segments, along with industry specific, multi-cloud strategies. 

Watch for a deeper understanding of what’s driving digital trade finance and to learn how Surecomp is delivering best-practice, cloud-based solutions for corporates and financial institutions alike.