Former Fremont city attorney pleads guilty to fraud
Former Fremont city attorney Mark Danaj.
FREMONT, Calif. - Former Fremont City Manager Mark Danaj has pleaded guilty to felony fraud charges for misusing his city-issued credit card for personal expenses, Alameda County District Attorney Pamela Price announced Thursday.
Prosecutors said a plea agreement with Danaj requires him to serve 90 days at Santa Rita Jail, serve two years of probation and pay more than $300,000 in restitution to the city of Fremont.
According to the District Attorney's Office, Danaj was fired as city manager in 2021 and negotiated a severance package of $316,617 with the city. However, after receiving the severance, he then informed the city that he owed $6,873 on a city-issued CAL-Card, an act that is considered theft by false pretense, prosecutors said.
Price alleged that when she took over as district attorney in 2023, the case was under-charged and that Danaj was represented by the brother of her predecessor, former District Attorney Nancy O'Malley, which Price called "an obvious conflict of interest."
Danaj agreed to repay the city the severance money plus the remaining debt on the city-issued card as part of his plea deal, prosecutors said.
"If my administration had not taken over this case, Mr. Danaj would not have been convicted of defrauding the City of Fremont, and the public's valid questions about Mr. Danaj's severance would never be answered," Price said in a statement.
Danaj's defense attorney was not immediately available to comment on the case.