At a wildfire relief event Feb. 9, Taiwanese dignitaries, California politicians and Arcadia firefighters posed for a photo with a giant check made out to a fledgling foundation.
The $510,000 gift from a Taiwan-based international chamber of commerce would benefit the roughly 54 firefighters of Arcadia, a city near Altadena that was spared by the Eaton fire.
But the Arcadia Fire Department Foundation, which counts City Councilmember David Fu as a board member and former City Councilmember Sho Tay as president, was not registered with the state and was therefore not allowed to accept donations, according to filings with the California Attorney General’s Office, which regulates charities.
The foundation’s website shut down in February, days after The Times inquired about its status with the Attorney General’s Office.
“We are working with the Foundation to get them into compliance,” a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s Office said in a statement.
More than a month later, the foundation still has not registered. Arcadia officials say they haven’t received the money.
The sizable check — made out to a small, unregistered charity overseen by a local politician — touched a nerve in a city on the watch for signs of foreign influence. In December, Arcadia found itself at the center of a spy scandal after federal prosecutors charged City Councilmember Eileen Wang’s campaign manager with colluding with the Chinese government to get her elected.
“Funds raised from foreign entities to a non-profit that an elected government representative sits on is always suspicious and to have no specific use or project to fund is even more suspect,” former Arcadia Mayor April Verlato wrote on Nextdoor.
Fu did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
But on the same Nextdoor post, Fu said the funds “will be used to support our brave firefighters and further protection of our city.”
“I can’t take any credit. I’m not Taiwanese, don’t speak Chinese, and had nothing to do in receiving this amazingly generous gift,” he wrote.
Tay, who founded the Arcadia Fire Department Foundation a few years ago, said the lack of paperwork was probably a mix-up by his accountant.
The World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce, which announced it was making the $510,000 donation to the foundation, is a global organization that connects Taiwanese business communities across the world. The group did not respond to a request for comment.
At the Feb. 9 wildfire relief event at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles — the equivalent of a consulate, since Taiwan doesn’t have official diplomatic relations with the U.S. — the Arcadia Fire Department Foundation received its check alongside the Los Angeles Fire Department Foundation, which got $500,000 from the government of Taiwan.
Taiwan is a self-governing democracy that China claims as its own territory. The two governments vie for power internationally, with China convincing all but 11 countries and the Holy See not to recognize Taiwan.
Arcadia, with an Asian American population of nearly 60%, is home to many Taiwanese and Chinese immigrants. According to federal prosecutors, the Chinese government had scouted for a rising star in Arcadia, hoping to cultivate a politician who could help them push pro-China policies, particularly regarding Taiwan.
Arcadia Fire Chief Chen Suen said the foundation told him that $360,000 of the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce donation would go to the fire department for a training center, which he said would also benefit nearby cities such as Sierra Madre, Pasadena and Monrovia. The rest, Suen said, would go to another charity associated with the Arcadia firefighters union, to be used for cancer screenings for firefighters.
That other charity, the Arcadia Firefighters Foundation, is in “delinquent status” with the state attorney general’s office and also barred from accepting donations due to lapsed registration, according to publicly available filings.
Arcadia Deputy City Manager Justine Bruno said the city won’t accept any money from the Arcadia Fire Department Foundation until its paperwork is in order. She said the foundation will decide how to spend the money from the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce.
“We’re getting a lot of questions about it,” Bruno said. “The foundation got a really generous donation and contribution, which is wonderful for the foundation, but at the moment, there’s no plan to spend those dollars.”
She added that city lawyers don’t believe that serving on both the City Council and the foundation’s board of directors creates a conflict of interest for Fu, since he isn’t supposed to financially benefit from gifts to the foundation. In a small city, she noted, politically active residents often find themselves wearing both hats. Mayor Michael Cao, for example, is on the board of the Arcadia Police Foundation, according to the city website.
In late January, officials from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office visited an Arcadia fire station, Suen said. The officials wanted to know how he might use the money that the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce planned to donate.
Suen, who is Taiwanese American, said he told them the city was looking to build a training center with the U.S. Forest Service to improve response times for emergencies such as active shooters and bombings. U.S. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) was trying to get $2 million through federal grants, but the city thought the center would cost as much as $4 million, he said.
Suen said he didn’t know how the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce found the fire department, but he was grateful for the support.
“Even though Arcadia was widely unaffected in terms of losing homes, we had 66 percent of our department on staff for 36 to 48 hours taking care of the east end,” he said.
Previously, the largest donation the Arcadia Fire Department Foundation had made was $20,000, which the Arcadia City Council voted to accept last year to fund fire department training projects.
Tay, the former City Council member, said that after hearing about the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office’s planned donation to the L.A. Fire Department Foundation, he wanted to see what might be available for Arcadia.
Tay said he was connected to the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce in January.
“I said, ‘We have a big population of Taiwanese, and our chief is from Taiwan, and I’m from Taiwan, so maybe you can help,’” he said.
The World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce, which is not a government entity, is fundraising for its gift to the Arcadia Fire Department Foundation through its network in Asia, Europe and America, according to Arthur Chen, head of its North American chapter.
Amino Chi, director general of the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Los Angeles, said in a statement that Taiwan and the Arcadia Fire Department share “a longstanding connection,” with Taiwan sometimes sending firefighters to the city for training.
After the Palisades and Eaton fires, Chi’s office reached out to Los Angeles city officials, who suggested that they donate to the L.A. Fire Department Foundation or the Red Cross.
It’s common after disasters for foreign countries to donate to relief efforts in a show of goodwill and a subtle flexing of soft power. Since they can’t donate directly to U.S. government agencies, they usually give to charities.
Among the countries that donated to the wildfire relief efforts were Japan, which gave $2 million to the Red Cross, and South Korea, which gave $1 million to the California Community Foundation.
Tay said the money from the World Taiwanese Chambers of Commerce was a gift — no strings attached.
“Some people started getting political, [saying], ‘Oh, this is government money.’ No, this is from the Chamber of Commerce,” he said. “Some people read into it too much — way too much.”
