Returning to the Mobil gas station in West Covina, and Daniel Choi and/or Mohamed Khidr

Back in February, I wrote a post about a gas station in West Covina that was charging $4.69 a gallon for gas. One of my sources for my post was a Pasadena Star News article, which stated the following:

clerk at the Mobil station referred questions about prices to the owner, Mohamed R. Khidr, who couldn't be reached Thursday.

Well, I apparently missed this bit of news from June, but it sounds like the owner of that gas station may be a man named Daniel Choi.

Now some people think that Choi, or Khidr, or whoever should be thrown in jail and strung up simply because of the high gas prices charged at the station. I disagree; if someone wants to charge a high price for gas, they have the freedom to do so.

But according to the June article, Daniel Choi is accused of something that IS fraudulent:

The Los Angeles County Agricultural Commissioner/Weights & Measures department has charged Choi with nine counts of false advertising. He allegedly would take numbers off his sign, put them on the ground and tell people they fell off.

"He was given a warning initially a year ago, which generally people comply with and for some reason he didn't," said Larry Godwin of the Department of Weights & Measures.

Choi paid a fine of $3,000 last year.

And according to this June article, Choi had other problems:

Choi told Superior Court Judge Victor D. Martinez he was having financial difficulties partly because former employees had embezzled and extorted him.

He did not provide details at the time, and I couldn't find any accounts of what happened after June. But Choi, or Khidr, or someone, was still charging $4.89/gallon earlier this week, according to losangelesgasprices.com.

Perhaps Paul Kedrosky has some thoughts on the matter.

P.S. Here's the Manta listing for Daniel's Auto.