Beaumont's elected city treasurer, Anup Giresh “AJ” Patel, has been charged with six felony counts including perjury, identity theft, false personation and forgery stemming from a public corruption investigation into a motel he operated in the city. The 39-year-old official posted $30,000 bail and is scheduled to appear for an arraignment hearing on October 26.
The Riverside County District Attorney's Office announced the charges, saying Patel provided false information on transient occupancy tax return forms tied to his motel and later used another person's identity to communicate with the city and dispute the tax owed, according to KESQ. Prosecutors allege Patel committed perjury on three separate occasions — on or about April 5, 2021, August 19, 2022, and March 13, 2024 — by submitting multiple occupancy tax return forms to the city that were signed under penalty of perjury, per the same report. He is also charged with identity theft spanning May 6 through May 30, 2025, false personation on or about May 30, 2025, and forgery on or about May 6, 2025.
According to the DA's office, Patel reported $0 in gross rent for room occupancy from April 2020 through December 2023, even as his motel allegedly collected $1,667,300.68 in gross rent between January 2021 and December 2023 alone. That discrepancy allegedly left him owing $166,730.07 in transient occupancy tax to the city, plus additional penalties, the station's report notes. Investigators say Patel also used another individual's identity to create a fraudulent lease agreement in connection with the case.
How the City's Own Audit Unraveled the Numbers
The case traces back to an audit the City of Beaumont initiated in January 2025 covering all local motels and hotels, examining activity from January 2021 through December 2023, the article states. That timing lines up with a March 2025 city staff report presented to the Beaumont City Council, which flagged that short-term rental properties were operating without a formal local regulatory framework, creating potential leakage in uncollected occupancy tax revenue, according to the City of Beaumont. City staff at the time noted that unmonitored short stays can bypass tax collection unless audits are strict.
Beaumont's municipal tax code levies a 10 percent transient occupancy tax on lodging stays of 30 days or less, and hotel operators act as trustees bound under penalty of perjury to collect and remit those funds monthly, according to a legal analysis published by KMTG. Notably, Section 3.12.020 of the Beaumont Municipal Code separately requires that all payment demands and financial claims against the city be audited and certified for accuracy by both the city treasurer and the finance director before city council approval, per the city's ordinance code — placing Patel's alleged personal tax conduct in tension with the fiscal-oversight duties his elected office carries.
A Case Prosecuted by the DA's Public Integrity Unit
Deputy District Attorney Natasha Sorace is prosecuting the case through the District Attorney's Public Integrity Unit, according to KESQ. That unit is a specialized division within Special Prosecutions dedicated to investigating public corruption, conflict of interest, voter fraud and open-meeting violations by public officials, and it uses vertical prosecution, meaning a single deputy district attorney handles a case from investigation through trial, per the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. If convicted on all counts, Patel faces a maximum of six years and four months in state prison, the outlet reports.
The unit has been active elsewhere in the county recently. In September, it filed four felony counts related to perjury and candidate declarations against a Menifee City Council candidate, according to MyNewsLA.com. Perjury charges stemming from official government filings can carry potential state prison sentences under California law, the outlet noted.
A City Still Living Down a $43 Million Scandal
Patel was elected Beaumont's city treasurer in November 2022 after running unopposed and receiving 9,777 votes, and his four-year term is set to expire following the municipal election on November 3, 2026 — a formal city resolution in June 2026 had already listed him among incumbents up for reelection, according to city records. It is also not his first brush with regulatory scrutiny: in March 2025, the California Fair Political Practices Commission fined Patel $200 for failing to timely file his 2023 Annual Statement of Economic Interests, a disclosure required annually of elected city officials under state law.
The charges land in a city with a fraught history on this front. In May 2016, seven former top Beaumont officials — including the former city manager, finance director and city attorney — were arrested and charged in a $43 million public corruption probe involving fraudulent bond sales, unauthorized loans and misapplied development fees, according to the Los Angeles Times. That scandal forced the city into years of fiscal debt and administrative oversight reform. The following year, Beaumont filed a civil legal malpractice lawsuit against its former city attorney and law firm over what it described as systemic financial oversight failures, unmonitored bond issuances and unrecorded general fund deficits, according to Courthouse News Service.
Patel's arraignment is scheduled for October 26, roughly a week before Beaumont voters head to the polls for the November 3 municipal election in which his own treasurer's seat is on the ballot.
