Irvin J. Kahn (1916–1973) was an American attorney and real estate developer who played a major role in the expansion of the city of San Diego in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.
[3] Observing his father's frequent run-ins with the courts due to his bootlegging past, Irvin was inspired to pursue a career as a criminal defense attorney.
[4] Irvin Kahn began his professional career as a defense attorney representing a number of high-profile clients, including several local labor unions.
Shenker arrange a $10M mortgage from the Mercantile Trust Company National Association and an additional $3.5M in financing from the Teamsters Pension Fund.
[3] By the early 1970s, additional capital was needed to finance the large-scale development that was expected to take place in the 1970s – Kahn's plan involved creating homes for more than 150,000 people.
In the late 1950s, he participated in smaller development projects in Chula Vista and La Mesa and was a vocal advocate for the "Shattuck Plan" to convert Horton Plaza to a convention hall.
[28] Beginning in the mid-1960s, Kahn financed his increasingly ambitious development projects with loans from the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' Central States, Southeast and Southwest Areas Pension Fund, which brought him under scrutiny from the FBI and IRS.
[29] Newspapers after his death reported that an IRS trailer had been semi-permanently parked outside his company headquarters, reviewing the accounting books from Kahn's numerous businesses.
)[28] Similarly, the FBI monitored Kahn's activities for several years and raided a "high-stakes gambling ring" at his Murrieta Hot Springs resort.
(The raid 'nabbed' dozens of elderly female spa guests who had been playing mah-jong and bridge, an outcome that was covered humorously in the contemporary press.