Former Stockton Mayor Anthony Silva says that federal charges filed against him last week are the result of “political retaliation.” He also largely blames former San Joaquin County District Attorney Tori Verber Salazar for his current legal troubles.
Silva is facing federal charges of bank fraud and identity theft arising from what the U.S. Attorney’s Office describes as “a scheme to enrich himself unlawfully” by fraudulently obtaining a bank loan through a government program meant to provide financial relief for struggling businesses during the the COVID-19 pandemic.
The former mayor describes the case as politically motivated by local interests.
“This case is about the continuing power struggle between different factions in Stockton. It’s nothing more than political retaliation,” Silva wrote in a statement to Stocktonia late Tuesday evening.
He also alleges that Verber Salazar was behind the investigation, accusing the former DA of having “used her connections within the liberal US Attorney’s office to pursue me and tear apart my livelyhood (sic) and my family.”
Verber Salazar, who has been out of office for more than two years and describes herself as a “lifetime registered Republican,” was the district attorney during Silva’s previous criminal legal saga. But she says that Silva’s current run-in with federal authorities has nothing to do with her.
“The charges of bank fraud and identity theft were brought by the United States Attorney’s Office following a federal investigation,” Verber Salazar told Stocktonia in a statement Wednesday morning. “To suggest that I, as a former county District Attorney, am orchestrating a federal prosecution demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of the basic functions of our justice system.”
Charges filed Aug. 15 with the U.S. District Court in Sacramento allege Silva submitted a fraudulent application for a Paycheck Protection Program loan in April of 2020 on behalf of his business, Indoor Adventures, an indoor children’s playground on Benjamin Holt Drive in Stockton that has since closed down. These federal loans were offered to help small businesses suffering financially due to the pandemic stay afloat, providing funds to pay employees and other certain business expenses.
Businesses applying for the PPP loan program could not be more than 20% owned by someone that had either been convicted of a felony in the previous five years or on probation for having committed one, federal court records say. Yet Silva had been convicted of a felony — later expunged — in May 2019 and on subsequent probation when the application was filed, which would have made him ineligible for a loan through the program.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office alleges Silva received a $17,000 loan under the guise that Indoor Adventures was under 85% majority ownership by someone else, only identified in court documents as an unnamed associate of Silva’s that “had no ownership interest” in the business and hadn’t served as an executive of the company.
Silva later applied to have the loan forgiven, according to court records, a request granted as part of the program. The U.S. Attorney’s Office says “the scheme” ran from in or around April 2020 through about September 2021.
In addition to possible forfeiture of the loan proceeds, Silva faces up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $1 million on the bank fraud charge. If convicted of identity theft, he could be ordered to serve a mandatory two years in prison to be served consecutively to any time sentenced on the bank fraud charge.
Indoor Adventures is listed as permanently closed online. The playground’s phone number was out of order as of Tuesday afternoon, while both its website and Facebook page appear to no longer be active. The business is also listed as suspended by the California Secretary of State’s office due to not being in good standing with the state’s Franchise Tax Board.
Silva has faced myriad felony charges in the past, including embezzlement, grand theft and weapons-related charges, though most were reduced or dropped.
In 2017 and 2018, Silva was charged with multiple felonies related to financial-malfeasance when he was mayor of Stockton, The Stockton Record reported at the time. Most of the charges were dropped in 2019 as a result of a plea deal, in which county court records show he served minimal jail time and eventually saw the one felony county he plead guilty to reduced to a misdemeanor and expunged from his record in 2022.
Silva was Stockton’s mayor from 2013 to 2016. He has remained a prominent public figure in Stockton, even running for City Council last year, though never advancing out of the March primary. He came in third place in his bid for City Council’s District 2 seat, which was ultimately won by Councilmember Mariela Ponce, coming in just 109 votes behind the second-place finisher.
His most recent public appearance was at a Stockton City Council meeting last week, introducing himself as the “former people’s mayor of Stockton,” where he voiced support for current-Mayor Christina Fugazi and former embattled interim City Manager Steve Colangelo.
“I want to extend my steadfast support to Mayor Fugazi,” he said. “She was my vice mayor, as many of you know, and so I have unwavering leadership for her, as she remains a person of integrity, and I’m here to continue to support her.”
As for his current charges, Silva says he has been and continues to be treated unfairly.
“As a Republican Mayor, I have been a political target for over a decade. Each time, the media fuels smoke without fire,” Silva said in his statement. “I stand with President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, and I have confidence that Interim U.S. Attorney Eric Grant will review these allegations fairly.”
Grant, whose name tops the charging document against Silva, was appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi to serve as the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of California earlier this month. He also served as a deputy assistant attorney general during Trump’s first term in the federal government’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
Silva is being represented by Kresta Nora Daly of the Winters-based Barth Daly LLP law firm, according to federal court records. Daly was appointed to represent Silva through the Criminal Justice Act, which provides for legal services to anyone charged with a federal crime who can’t fund their own defense. Daly has not responded to Stocktonia’s request for a comment.
The lead attorney on the case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Thuesen.
Reporters Chris Woodyard and Scott Linesburgh contributed to this report.