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Prosecutors accuse former L.A. Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan of shaking down developers as another federal trial opens in the sprawling City Hall corruption scandal.
LA WATCHDOG On November 7, 2018, the FBI raided the home and offices of Councilman Jose Huizar.
Since that time, the U.S. Attorney’s Office has charged nine individuals in connection with its ongoing criminal investigation into the pay-to-play corruption scandal enveloping Los Angeles City Hall. But we have seen very little, if any, effort to address this cancer and its underlying symptoms, in large part because of lack of political will on the part of Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Attorney Mike Feuer to take on the most corrupt City Council in the history of Los Angeles.
On Monday, the first shoe dropped as former City Councilman Mitch Englander was sentenced to 14 months in jail (no doubt a Club Fed, not hard time) and a $15,000 fine in connection with his guilty plea in March to one count of scheming to falsify material facts. But this felon, who betrayed the public’s trust, deserved a much harsher sentence: three years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and the forfeiture
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From left, Michael Rosenfeld and Century Plaza, Jose Huizar and City Hall, Jeff Bezos and 1801 Angelo Drive (Getty Images)
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
Charles Dickens sure nailed the state of the Los Angeles real estate market in 2020.
While the office market stared into the abyss and retail continued to get pummeled, the top of the residential market went into overdrive. Spec developers who flew too close to the sun got burned, while others who hoped to score political brownie points got ensnared in a major City Hall scandal.