Meet The Strip Club Owner Fueling Kim Ogg’s Political Career
“To avoid the appearance of impropriety, the wisest route would probably be for the District Attorney to return the money.”
Toplines:
Since 2017, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg has accepted over $25,000 of campaign contributions from Ali Davari, who, along with his brother, Hassan, owns a mini-empire of strip clubs in Houston and Las Vegas.
The Davari brothers have faced repeated civil and criminal allegations. The City of Houston even temporarily shut down one of their clubs, alleging that it was used for prostitution and human trafficking. The brothers also settled a recent federal wage theft lawsuit for over $1 million.
These contributions raise serious ethical questions. As District Attorney, Kim Ogg is responsible for deciding whether to prosecute crimes such as prostitution, human trafficking, and even wage theft— the kinds of allegations that have dogged the Davari brothers for years.
Full Report:
When it comes to living large in Texas, one can do worse than Ali Davari, with his $8 million dollar sprawling 34,000 square foot mega-mansion and a mini-empire of high-profile strip clubs that he and his brother, Hassan, own throughout Houston and Las Vegas.
Yet, while the Davari brothers live the dream, dancers who work at their clubs describe more of a nightmare situation.
One of the dancers, Grace Roberts, filed a federal wage theft lawsuit against the Davari brothers earlier this year, describing how the they refused to pay her the federally-mandated minimum wage for even “a single hour” that she worked, and instead made her pay the club a so-called “house fee” each time she performed, sometimes leaving her owing the club money even after she worked a full shift.
The Davari brothers have been sued by workers at their clubs at least three other times for wage theft; the Davaris settled one of these recent lawsuits for over $1 million.
Wage theft allegations are far from the only negative publicity Ali and Hassan Davari have faced over the years. When the brothers opened their first club in Las Vegas, the local newspaper wrote: “The Houston strip joints collectively have earned thousands of dollars in fines and enough citations from the Houston police and the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission to wallpaper the MGM Grand twice, for offenses including prostitution, public lewdness, selling booze to minors and refusing inspections.”
More recently, the City of Houston temporarily shut down one of the Davari’s clubs, Treasures, after filing a public nuisance lawsuit against the club, alleging it was rife with prostitution and human trafficking. “Through force, fraud or coercion, pimps cause these women to engage in prostitution,” the city alleged, and “Treasures knowingly receives a benefit from participating in the prostitution trafficking venture.” Lawyers for the city called the Davari brothers’ club “an epicenter of illegal activity,” and said that “the evidence of human trafficking makes this place especially abhorrent.”
Extortion. Credit card fraud. Dishing out brutal physical beatings. Money Laundering. These are also crimes--along with prostitution, human trafficking, and wage theft--that the Davari brothers’ clubs are alleged to have committed, as recently as this year.
Given their decades of legal troubles, one might imagine any respected political figure wouldn’t touch money from the Davaris with a ten foot pole.
But meet Kim Ogg.
Kim Ogg is the elected District Attorney of Harris County, Texas, which encompasses the city of Houston. Her literal job is to investigate and prosecute crimes like wage theft, prostitution, human trafficking, extortion, money laundering, fraud, and assault.
This isn’t a hypothetical problem: Before Ogg took office, a previous Harris County District Attorney’s Office accused the Davari brothers of money laundering and seized $2.17 million from their accounts at three banks. Ultimately, a judge ruled that approximately $1.5 million of the seized money was contraband.
So, if there is any elected official who should think twice about accepting donations from Ali Davari, the District Attorney would be that person.
Kim Ogg, though, took six separate donations totaling over $25,000 from Ali Davari to line the coffers of her re-election campaign, according to Harris County campaign finance records.
“Accepting campaign contributions from a person embroiled in accusations of human trafficking within the jurisdiction certainly creates the appearance of impropriety for an elected District Attorney and makes it harder to act as a minister of justice—to apply the law without fear or favor,” Daniel Medwed, professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University, told Houston Watch.
Carissa Hessick, a law professor at the University of North Carolina, told Houston Watch that prosecutor campaigns are fueled by donations and there is no law that requires the district attorney to reject donations, or give them back, simply because the business a person owns has been repeatedly embroiled with accusations of serious crimes. However, Hessick said that because prosecutors “have significant power in deciding whom to investigate and charge” accepting campaign contributions always “comes with the risk that those contributions could be viewed as affecting how they wield that power.”
This is not the first time that Ogg’s campaign contributions have raised eyebrows. Ogg also accepted over $40,000 from Amir Mireskandari (and his wife), who was implicated in an illicit scheme to help operators of poker clubs secure city licenses. In January 2017, Ogg hired Mireskandari, who is not a lawyer, as a $1,100-a-month consultant to the District Attorney’s office, ostensibly to work on prosecuting complex financial cases. As the Houston Chronicle reported, in 2019, “Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg dismissed felony money laundering charges against nine defendants [associated with the poker club scandal], citing a potential conflict of interest involving a former contract employee and campaign donor.”
Though there is no law or ethical rule requiring Ogg to return the money from Ali Davari, Houston Watch asked Medwed, the Northeastern law professor, what the most prudent course of action for an elected prosecutor to take in this situation. Here’s what Medwed said:
“To avoid the appearance of impropriety, the wisest route would probably be for the District Attorney to return the money.”
District Attorney Ogg dodged Houston Watch’s request for comment on whether she intends to keep or return the contributions from Ali Davari. Houston Watch will update the story if and when she responds.