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Chinese company found guilty of paying $1 million bribe to Los Angeles lawmaker


LOS ANGELES (AP) — A company owned by a billionaire Chinese real estate developer was convicted Nov. 10 of bribing Los Angeles city council members more than $1 million to help secure downtown project approval.

The U.S. Department of Justice announced that Shenzhen New World I LLC was found guilty of eight counts of wire fraud in good faith services, bribery, and interstate and foreign travel bribery.

The company is expected to face a multimillion-dollar fine at a sentencing hearing in January.

The company’s owner, Wei Huang, 57, is also charged in the federal case but is a fugitive and is believed to be in China, prosecutors said.

From 2013 to 2018, Shen Zhen bribed Jose Huisal to help win city approval for a 77-story tower that would be the tallest skyscraper west of the Mississippi River, prosecutors said.

At the time, the city councilor chaired the city’s powerful Planning and Land Use Management Committee.

Huizar allegedly received cash, casino gaming chips, luxury accommodations in Las Vegas, expensive meals, prostitution services, political donations and funds to settle sexual harassment lawsuits.

Prosecutors said the bribes were part of Huizar’s pay-to-play scheme related to approving downtown developments. He has pleaded not guilty to 41 charges accusing him of bribery, racketeering, fraud and money laundering.

The Shenzhen conviction is the latest in a sweeping and ongoing city hall corruption investigation. Nine defendants have been convicted or pleaded guilty to federal charges, including Huizar’s brother, Salvador Huizar; a former Huizar assistant, a Huizar fundraiser and another real estate developer.

Huizar is scheduled to stand trial in February alongside former deputy mayor Raymond Chan, who also pleaded not guilty to corruption charges.



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