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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former Los Angeles Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan was convicted Wednesday of racketeering, bribery, fraud and giving false statements to investigators in a sprawling pay-to-play corruption scandal at City Hall.
The federal jury reached the responsible verdict lower than 24 hours after legal professionals completed closing arguments, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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Sentencing was set for June 10. Chan’s lawyer, John Hanusz, informed the decide that they are going to attraction.
Raymond Chan, former L.A. Deputy Mayor, was convicted Wednesday of bribery, racketeering, fraud and giving false statements to investigators. (iStock)
“Chan used his leadership position in City Hall to favor corrupt individuals and companies willing to play dirty,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada mentioned in a press release. “With today’s verdict, we send a strong message that the public will not stand for corruption and that pay-to-play politics has no place in our community.”
This was Chan’s second trial in the bribery case involving downtown Los Angeles actual property growth initiatives. The first fell aside after his lawyer, Harland Braun, was hospitalized and unable to return to work for months. A decide declared a mistrial final April.
In the most recent trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian R. Faerstein informed jurors that Chan and former City Councilmember Jose Huizar used the downtown actual property growth of the prior decade to complement themselves and their allies, the Times reported.
Faerstein described Chan, 67, as an important middleman between Chinese builders seeking to construct high-rises and Huizar, who headed the highly effective committee that shepherded such initiatives.
In opening arguments March 12, Faerstein mentioned Chan “got bribes for himself, and he got bribes for other public officials.”
Chan is the final defendant charged in the City Hall corruption investigation to go on trial. Huizar, who pleaded responsible to racketeering and tax evasion prices, was sentenced in January to 13 years in jail. More than a half-dozen others have been convicted or pleaded responsible to federal prices, together with Huizar’s brother, Salvador Huizar.
“This case was, and always has been, about Jose Huizar,” Hanusz mentioned.
Hanusz agreed that Huizar and the others have been corrupt. But he mentioned whereas Huizar accepted flights to Las Vegas, on line casino chips and lavish resort stays, Chan obtained none of these issues.
Chan, whereas working with builders, was motivated not by greed however by a want to make Los Angeles extra business-friendly, Hanusz mentioned.
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Chan was the highest government on the Department of Building and Safety till 2016, when he turned the deputy mayor in cost of financial growth beneath Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was not implicated in the scandal. Chan held that job for barely greater than a yr, then left metropolis authorities to change into a private-sector advisor, representing actual property builders.
Prosecutors have accused Chan of secretly organising a consulting agency whereas working for the town and overseeing authorities actions for which he was paid by a developer after he left his metropolis employment, the Times mentioned.
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