Clad in their trademark dark blue apparel, FBI agents raided homes and offices throughout Southern California this week as part of an ongoing investigation.
While it’s not clear what they took, they left behind plenty of questions, including why they obtained search warrants for homes and offices linked to two prominent Inland Empire politicians and a and a West Covina-based Chinese language media executive.
Here’s what we know so far about the investigation.
What happened on July 28?
Federal agents executed search warrants or delivered subpoenas at multiple addresses, including:
- Ontario International Airport.
- Ontario City Hall.
- An Ontario home linked to Ontario City Councilmember Alan Wapner.
- The Chino Hills district office of San Bernardino County Supervisor Curt Hagman.
- A Chino home linked to Hagman.
- A West Covina office linked to James Su, founder and president of EDI Media Inc., which bills itself as the largest Chinese-American multimedia company in the U.S.Su also founded the Chinese American Film Festival and his company also owns icitynews.com, which publishes articles ranging from local news to entertainment.
- A West Covina home linked to Su.
- A home and office linked to attorney Frank Lizarraga, a former Ontario planning commissioner.
- The Chino office of Parkcrest Construction.
- A mansion on North Canon Drive in Beverly Hills.
What were agents looking for?
It’s not clear. FBI spokesperson Laura Eimiller said the search warrants have been sealed by the court and that she could not share any information about the investigation.
Agents were seen taking photos at the West Covina residence tied to Su.
Andrew Cowan, Su’s attorney, said Su was home “when the FBI showed up with a large squad of heavily armed agents.
“They ordered him, his wife, his daughter and his two 7-year-old twin sons and two grandmothers who live there and who are in their 80s, outside in the sun while they conducted the search,” Cowan added.
What do we know about the four men linked to the probe?
So far, Hagman, Lizarraga, Su and Wapner have not been arrested or indicted.
Hagman, a Republican, served in the state Assembly before being elected supervisor in 2014. Wapner, a retired police sergeant and ex-school board member, has been on Ontario’s council for more than 30 years.
Wapner and Hagman serve as president and vice president, respectively, on the board of the Ontario International Airport Authority, the public agency overseeing the airport. Wapner in particular was a vocal figure in the successful push to return the airport to local control, which happened in 2016.
Lizarraga donated $1,000 to Hagman’s campaign in 2022, the same year he got roughly $2,700 from the campaign for office expenses. Su and his company donated $7,500 to Hagman between 2017 and this year.
Lizarraga also has ties to a $5.3 million sublease agreement with El Prado Development, LLC to operate El Prado Golf Course at Prado Regional Park in Chino.
San Bernardino County supervisors voted 4-1 — Paul Cook was opposed — to approve the sublease last year and Lizarraga was identified in the contract as a managing member of El Prado Development.
According to a 2015 report in The Guardian, Su’s firm was the focus of Federal Communications Commission and U.S. Department of Justice investigations into U.S. radio broadcasts backed by a subsidiary of the Chinese government. Those probes came in response to a report that highlighted an alleged covert radio network that broadcasted in more than a dozen American cities.
Parkview Construction, one of the locations raided by the FBI, specializes in developing shopping centers, senior assisted living homes and other projects.
Founder Andrea “Andy” Sehremelis is a licensed real estate broker and a general contractor, whose expertise is land acquisition for development and project management, according to the firm’s website. He also bills himself as a local philanthropist who donates to youth and faith-based organizations throughout Southern California.
In August 2025, Parkcrest Construction was granted by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors a 30-year lease for 40-acres of vacant land at the Chino Airport, according to the Chino Champion newspaper. Sehremelis planned to use the land for a truck storage facility and electric vehicle charging station.
Hagman abstained from the vote, because Sehremelis a month earlier had donated $1,000 to his campaign, the Champion reported. Hagman said at the time that he would return the money.
Campaign finance records show Sehremelis donated $11,400 to Hagman between 2018 and 2024. He also gave $20,500 to Wapner’s campaign between 2022 and 2025, according to records.
When Sehremelis sought approval for a development project in the Los Angeles County city of Lakewood in 2017, Hagman offered a letter of support.
Have any of the men spoken publicly about the investigation?
Not yet. Hagman declined to comment when reached by phone Friday, July 31. Wapner could not be reached for comment Friday.
Wapner on Thursday, July 30, shared a photo on his campaign social media accounts with several endorsements, including one from “police and firefighters,” showing a photo of Wapner with friends, local pastor Michael Lopez and his wife, Mona.
“I am grateful for their confidence in my vision for Ontario’s future, and I look forward to continuing our work together to make our city an even better place to live, work, and raise a family,” the post states.
When will this investigation wrap up and what happens next?
We don’t know.
A federal grand jury has been convened in the investigation, giving the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office the power to issue subpoenas — such as the ones issued to Ontario International Airport and Ontario City Hall.
Typically, subpoenas are issued to non-target, third-parties for such things as contracts, credit card transactions and phone records, said Lawrence Rosenthal, a former federal prosecutor and a professor at the Chapman University Dale E. Fowler School of Law.
“Most investigations by the U.S. Attorney’s Office are done in conjunction with the grand jury,” Rosenthal said.
He also said that typically, much investigating has taken place to gather the evidence necessary for a judge to sign a search warrant.
However, it also takes time to go through the items obtained through the warrant. “Usually, the more complex (the case), the more time it takes,” Rosenthal said.
In order to secure a search warrant, law enforcement has to convince a judge that probable cause exists of a crime and that evidence of a crime will be found in the search.
There is precedent for federal probes not leading to criminal charges. In 2013, agents searched the homes of Moreno Valley’s then-councilmembers and seized evidence as part of a corruption probe that resulted in no indictments
Staff Writer Allyson Vergara contributed to this report.