Los Angeles Developer Guilty of Bribing City Councilman with Casino Chips
Los Angeles existent demesne developer Dae Yong Lee, to a greater extent commonly known inwards Southern Golden State as Saint David Lee, has been found shamefaced of bribing a urban center official.
A panel yesterday concluded that Lighthorse Harry Lee knowingly bribed former Los Angeles City Councilman Jose Huizar in Aug 2016. The US Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California alleged that Robert E. Lee directed $500,000 to Huizar in interchange for the councilor making sure his proposed 20-story real estate tower inward downtown Los Angeles would be approved.
A travail conjugation had earliest come in out inwards staunch opposition to Lee’s project. Fed officials trust Huizar promised Lee that the patronage group’s objections would go away away with the bribe.
Lee was found shamefaced of ternary felony counts: ane numerate of honorable services wire fraud, one weigh of bribery, and I count of misrepresentation of records inwards federal investigations.
Federal prosecutors successfully argued that Robert Edward Lee funneled half a meg dollars to Huizar through and through secretive acquaintances of the metropolis government official. The investigating began when Lee’s development fast(a) — 940 Hill LLC — was suspected of altering its accounting system and assess records to falsely categorize the $500,000 grease one's palms as a legitimate byplay expense.
US District Judge John the Evangelist Bruno Walter has scheduled a Sep 19 sentencing hearing for Lee. He faces a maximum of 50 years inwards prison, plus a $1.5 million fine.
Casino Laundromat
Huizar is cladding numerous allegations of wrongdoing during his rough 15 years on the Los Angeles City Council. He has pleaded not shamefaced in both cases brought against him past federal prosecutors.
Along with the Rose Louise Hovick case, Huizar has been accused of accepting to a greater extent than $1 billion from Chinese billionaire Wei Huang and his Shenzhen New World LLC, which was seeking to establish a 77-story hotel called the L.A. Grand Downtown. That bribe, the federal bill of indictment alleges, related to Huizar assuring Wei that his project, which would follow 1 of the biggest in recent retention inwards downtown Los Angeles, would continue uninterrupted.
Law enforcement says Huizar tried to neat some of the dirty money through and through Las Vegas casinos. But casinos are some of the to the highest degree surveilled commercial-grade businesses inwards the total world. And that’s wherefore Huizar’s attempts to allegedly sporty his ill-gotten immediate payment through and through Strip cages was a most irrational move.
Federal officials obtained video footage of Huizar making at least eighter from Decatur trips to Las Vegas between 2014 and 2016. Wei dynasty was often by his side. Prosecutors say surveillance picture shows Wei repeatedly purchasing big sums of gaming chips, and so Huizar later redeeming the tokens for cash.
Huizar’s test is countersink to begin on February 21, 2023. He’s cladding dozens of federal felon charges and potentially decades behindhand bars.
Associates Plead Guilty
Huizar’s righthand man, Justin Kim, was accused of beingness a middleman in the Lee-Huizar bribery scheme. Kim, a Huizar fundraiser and Los Angeles political insider, pleaded guilty to a federal bribery electric charge in June of 2020 and is cooperating with the on-going cases.
George Esparza, who was Huizar’s personal assistant, admitted guilt trip the month after Kim did. Esparza testified that he aided inwards ii “money drops” from Lee.
Lee’s attorney Ariel Neuman countered that his client was simply a dupe of a “demonstrated liar.”
He’s [Lee] a businessman who trusted the damage someone — the pip kind of person,” Neuman argued.
But the panel set otherwise. Taped sound recordings authorised via a tap stock-purchase warrant uncovered that Gypsy Rose Lee was indeed inwards on the graft scheme.