This week, when Mr. Huizar is scheduled to report to prison, he will become the third recent Los Angeles City Council member to go down as part of corruption investigations, part of a much larger circle of staff aides, fund-raisers, political consultants and real estate developers who have been charged in what federal authorities called an “extraordinary” recent wave of bribery and influence-peddling across California.

Two other members of the City Council have also faced criminal convictions. One of them, Mark Ridley-Thomas, was found guilty of bribery and fraud last year; the other, Mitchell Englander, pleaded guilty in 2020 to a charge of making false statements in connection with a corruption investigation.
A fourth City Council member, Curren Price, is facing charges of embezzlement, perjury and conflict of interest.
Over the last 10 years, 576 public officials in California have been convicted on federal corruption charges, according to Justice Department reports, exceeding the number of cases in states better known for public corruption, including New York, New Jersey and Illinois.
California has a larger population than those states, but the recent wave of cases is attributable to much more than that, federal prosecutors say.
A heavy concentration of power at Los Angeles City Hall, the receding presence of local news media, a population that often tunes out local politics and a growing Democratic supermajority in state government have all helped insulate officeholders from damage, political analysts said.

In Los Angeles, Mr. Huizar’s influence was even greater than that of most other council members: Not only did his district include downtown Los Angeles, where billions of dollars of foreign investment was transforming the skyline, but he also controlled the Planning and Land Use Management Committee that approves major developments all over the city.

“When you have that kind of power, pay-to play schemes run amok,” said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, whose office has led many of the recent prosecutions in Los Angeles. “I wouldn’t call it ordinary what these folks did. It is extraordinary.”

Mr. Huizar, 55, pleaded guilty to racketeering, a charge often used in prosecuting organized crime or street-gang cases. The $1.8 million in bribes he received was twice the amount that recently convicted Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey was charged with accepting.

In March, a jury convicted Raymond Chan, a former Los Angeles deputy mayor whom prosecutors called the “architect” of the Huizar conspiracy, also on racketeering charges. In all, more than 50 key political figures and executives in Los Angeles and San Francisco have been convicted since 2019. Many more were investigated or resigned after allegations surfaced.
California also had cases of corruption in the days, now in the distant past, when Republicans held statewide office.

But political analysts say the Democrats’ present lock on political power leaves little opportunity for Republicans to effectively raise the issue of corruption as a campaign issue.

“When a political party enjoys that much uncontested power, there’s no penalty for stepping over ethical or legal lines,” said Dan Schnur, a former head of the state Fair Political Practices Commission and a former Republican who is now an independent.

A two-year-old reform effort to curb some of the extraordinary power conferred to individual council members in Los Angeles has foundered.

What happened in Los Angeles had been playing out on a smaller scale for years in the small industrial cities of Los Angeles County that have been described as a “corridor of corruption”: South Gate, Bell, Lynwood and Vernon, among others, where civic leaders were prosecuted for taking bribes or tapping into city funds.

“You have large immigrant populations, largely marginalized communities that do not have the resources to watch their politicians closely,” said Mr. Estrada, the U.S. attorney, whose parents emigrated from Guatemala. “I think you have a pretty unique cauldron of factors in Los Angeles and the greater Los Angeles area that allow for these things to happen.”

The arrival of large-scale investments from China starting in 2011 heightened the risks.

Over the next half-dozen years, about $26 billion of direct investment from Chinese firms and their billionaire owners arrived in the state.
Downtown Los Angeles underwent a dramatic revival. New high-rise condos and hotels went up, abandoned warehouses were converted into loft apartments and galleries and expensive restaurants opened.

The 40-year-old Grand Hotel, a rundown eyesore used until recently by the city as a homeless shelter, was at the center of one investor’s grandiose plan.

The investor, Wei Huang, a billionaire owner of the development company Shen Zhen New World, bought the hotel in 2010 with plans to convert it into a 77-story tower, the highest in the western United States.

What he needed was help managing the byzantine political approval process. He found it, federal prosecutors said, with Mr. Huizar, who had been elected to the council in 2005.

Starting in 2013, federal prosecutors said, Mr. Huizar took the first of 20 all-expenses paid trips to Las Vegas with Mr. Huang, during which he was supplied with about $10,000 worth of casino chips each time.

Their involvement deepened just before a 2015 election, when Mr. Huizar faced allegations from his deputy chief of staff that he had sexually harassed her. Mr. Huang, prosecutors said, provided him with $600,000 of collateral for a loan to settle out of court.

But it was the free casino chips in Las Vegas that would ultimately unravel the arrangement. During one trip to the Cosmopolitan casino in 2016, its security chief, a former F.B.I. agent, spotted Mr. Huizar playing a $16,000 pile of chips at a card table. When he asked his identity, he became flustered and walked away, leaving the chips.

“Who walks away from $16,000 of casino chips?” said Carlos Narro, who was then the chief of the F.B.I.’s public corruption section in Los Angeles, who got a call from the security chief.

mr. Narro had the casino’s video of the scene at the card table and flight records. With those, the F.B.I. got court approval for wire taps and searches of Mr. Huizar’s text messages and emails.

The investigation found that Mr. Huang had paid roughly $1.8 million to Mr. Huizar, but that was only part of a much wider network of corruption, investigators found. The wide-ranging racketeering indictment to which Mr. Huizar pleaded guilty also targeted a City Hall aide, a deputy mayor, a lobbyist and a political fund-raiser, all of whom were also convicted.

Mr. Huang was indicted and is now a fugitive, believed to be in China. His company was fined $4 million.

Imcluded in the indictment were three other large development projects whose backers, prosecutors said, obtained Huizar’s help in exchange for bribes.

The scandal was inevitable, said Miguel Santana, the former top administrative officer of Los Angeles.

“The depth of power that a council member has around development in their own districts almost facilitates the level of corruption that took place,” Mr. Santana, now president of the California Community Foundation, said. “That level of power still exists today.”

San Francisco has had its own round of corruption cases, many of the recent ones surrounding the former Department of Public Works chief, Mohammed Nuru, who pleaded guilty in 2021 to accepting gifts, including a tractor for his ranch outside the city, a Rolex watch and millions of dollars, from various people with business before the city.

Florence Kong, the owner of a recycling company, pleaded guilty to offering some of the bribes in exchange for city contracts. Zhang Li, a Chinese developer also accused of offering bribes, signed a deferred prosecution agreement.

Now scheduled to surrender to prison by Aug. 31, Mr. Huizar made a public apology at his sentencing hearing, saying he had long been dedicated to his community. “Shiny things were dangled in front of me, and I could not resist the temptation,” he said in a letter to the judge asking for leniency. “The money, the fancy dinners, luxury flights. It was there for the taking, and I could not say no.”

Mr. Estrada, the U.S. attorney, said that Mr. Huizar’s corruption offended him as a Latino.

“It feels like a real betrayal,” said Mr. Estrada, the U.S. attorney. “Because for those of us whose families came from Latin America, and know that system, there’s just rampant corruption there. You come to this country, you have more opportunities, you are offered to be part of a system that is theoretically supposed to operate cleanly.”

>>1337122
>Over the last 10 years, 576 public officials in California have been convicted on federal corruption charges, according to Justice Department reports, exceeding the number of cases in states better known for public corruption, including New York, New Jersey and Illinois
Libshits btfo
Yet again
Why are they so corrupt tho?

>in states better known for public corruption, including New York, New Jersey and Illinois
Hey guess what California New York New Jersey and Illinois all have in common besides being famously corrupt

>>1337161
>Did you know that the most populated state in the whole country has the most criminals?
Imagine being so retarded you think you were making a good point here

>>1337207
Anon, if you weren't terminally retarded you'd realize that would make Texas and Florida number 2 and 3 for corruption, but they aren't, the list is Cali, NY, Illinois and NJ.

Why are you so retarded?

>>1337251
Texas and Florida don't check for corruption. This story is about the system working in California while it's failing in red states.
>Why are you so retarded?
Why must the chuds always project their own inadequacies?

>>1337256
Do you have any proof of your wild claims?
Because according to the new york times, there is a literal epidemic of corruption in California by public officials, and every other state with this problem are democrat states.

Nyt even blames it on one party rule in these states.

If you have any evidence and not just impotent shilling for your corrupt blue masters I'd love to see it

>>1337263
Well jfk got murdered in texas and it's still a cold case so

>>1337264
This post really highlights the fact that 42% of Internet traffic is from bots

>>1337276
No rebuttal i see

>>1337284
Your post was off topic, unrelated to political corruption, and demonstrably false.

You are terminally retarded.

>>1337264
Besides the fact that Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder of JFK, meaning you are factually incorrect on stating it is a cold case, but what does a communist murdering a president have to do with political corruption?

honestly all these weird fags deserve to die.

>>1336765
>weed addicts aren't people
>anyone caught with wed should get the death penalty
Republican corruption: >>1337299
Honestly all these weird trumpfags deserve electoral death.

Oh my, another lefty melty ^^^
He's getting totally unhinged

oh my, another righty melty^^^
He's getting totally unhinged at his hypocrisy exposed

Leave it to the Corruptocrats to set new records of public corruption.
They are nearly at Chinese-levels of corruption now. Shoot, the article even says they were getting a bunch of their bribes from Chinese investors.

Democrats really need to address this massive problem of corruption that's festering in their party and elected officials

>>1337318
And what does the JFK assassination have to do with democrat corruption?
Don't worry I'll wait, I imagine you're going to have to smoke quite a bit of fentanyl before you're high enough to imagine anything that makes sense to you

>Republicans are so toxic in California that they need to run as Democrats to get elected
>They still get caught and sent to jail
>somehow this is a problem... for democrats
Meanwhile, Republicunts put their corrupt on a pillar and make sure they can't get prosecuted.

>>1337329
Pretty hard to get prosecuted if you're not committing crimes

>>1337329
>Republicans are so toxic in California that they need to run as Democrats to get elected
/news/troon headcanon gets more wild and unhinged by the day

>republican corruption exposed >>1337299. their felon-in-chief that committed crimes and has been convicted: found guilty 34 times. democrats don't worry about that they don't care about: a corrupt republican
>>1337327 is on fentanyl

The libshit paid shills are much better at night during India hours.

So far, their top rebuttals to the fact that California had 600 public officials convicted of federal corruption are:
1) nobody ever figured out who murdered JFK (so retardedly stupid of a claim to lmao)
2) trump supports abortion and medical weed
And
3) every elected democrat arrested for federal corruption is a cryptorepublican

The /news/troons are literally going full retard as they flail around searching for a rebuttal here, lol. Lmao even.

>>1337333
interesting projection. here's a rupee, russia has it in escrow

>waaaah no one is interacting with my shill points
>why won't dems argue with me
real righty melty here boys

Meanwhile, Democrat voters lmao at Trumptroons literally going full retard. Which is how they behave anyway, even when they're not in /news/ having a melty.

>>1337336
>>1337335
>>1337334
Triggered, huh? I must have hit the nail on the head.

Thanks for adopting my "lefty having a melty" catchphrase, I guess that means it was effective

>>1337337 the reddit spacer is triggered as its head is hit by the hammer of it's own retardation.
The righty seething at Republican corruption with Trump as the source of that which makes them corrupt, we know it's effective.

>>1337338
Lmao are you a bot?

>>1337338
Look at this horrible output spacing. Specifically how the post is directly after the reply link, with no newline.

It's a bot.
It's a bot.

We lmao at >>1337339 the bot, which proves it is if it replies to this post

your threads are pure shit

>>1337340
Look at this reddit spacing. It's triggered.

Oh dear the lefty is having a huge melty.
He really should lay off the fentanyl. Maybe then he'll realize JFK's murder isn't a cold case and has nothing to do with democrats rampant corruption

schizo pretending that they're successfully trolling, when really its just the rest of /news/ telling them they're a retarded faggot fucking up the board
reddit-tier schizo literally can't tell the difference.

oh dear, the rightie is seething.
It should lay off the weed. But >>1337299 shows that the corrupt Trump wants it legalized, so righties will use that, then go on to fentanyl. But as righties in /news/ are already on that, no wonder they're retards.

The subject of this thread should have been "Democrat Grilled Cheese" due to the massive influx of lefty melties it's caused

this faggot sure loves spamming in his awful thread with his favorite AI image

>Grilled Cheese is a tasty and wholesome thing. All people like them
This makes the rightie seethe at its metaphor being destroyed

lefties=melted, the thread

rightards seething. the thread. rightards are bots if they reply to this post or continue to post ITT.

Kek.
The leftist is melting the fuck down at this point.
Not a single point of disagreement over the facts presented by this article, only mentally unhinged yelling at clouds

^^^a seething rightard bot. It admits it is, when all it had to do to prove otherwise is not reply to >>1337358 or continue to post ITT.

The scale of this libshit meltdown is epic. He literally cannot address the facts presented in the article.

^^^the scale of this rightard seething is epic. It literally cannot address the fact it presents that it is a seething bot.

The libshit bot can no longer even generate a unique response. It's stuck in a feedback loop and just repeating the most recent post

>'Democrats don't care about 'corruption' in their own party: why should we when rightards don't care about corruption in their own party: until the latter do by eliminating the corrupt orange retard from the Republicans, Democrats should care even less about what Trumptards consider to be 'corruption' in another political party
>Trumptards' Felon-in-Chief
>Its dealings with the Mob
>An orange retard has corruption hardwired into its DNA
What Trumptards consider to be 'corruption'? If the Trumptards don't care about corruption in their own party, we don't care about 'corruption' in ours because it doesn't exist if Trumptards say the same doesn't exist in the Republican party. The rightshit is seething.

^^^ a lefty melty, everyone.
To enter your question, people care when an elected official is convicted of federal corruption charges. And that's happened 600 times in California largely.
Care to address the article rather than melting down with every post?

>>1337369
Are you outraged?

^^^a rightard seething, everyone.
It doesn't care about corruption in its own party, nor will it address that corruption in the Republicans: Trump for one, therefore it doesn't have the right to have opinions about another political party. The rightard is a hypocrite. And hypocrites don't have the right to accuse others of corruption. But then, Accusations are Admissions. This thread is basically making IMAX obsolete. When the Republicans are pure themselve - and that means more than eliminating Trump from their party, then they'll have the right to accuse others of corruption. That includes rightards. Those in /news/ are corrupt, therefore they don't have the right to accuse anyone else of being the same. Accusations are Admissions. The rightard ITT is making IMAX obsolete.

Whoops, the leftist shillbot is still stuck in its feedback loop, repeating previous posts.
Maybe someday it will address the facts that 600 elected officials in California have been convicted of federal corruption charges in the last few years

If rightards refuse to address corruption in their own party: Trump and the elimination of that which is corruption incarnate, corruption doesn't exist in the Democrat party.
The rightard bot is still stuck in its retardation whilst living in a certain river in Egypt. And Accusations are Admissions. The bot and the party it shills for are worse than corrupt. And nobody else is.

>>1337376
Are you the person claiming that trump supporting medical weed is evidence of corruption?
I would love to have this conspiracy theory of yours explained in detail, preferably with some sort of external reliable source justifying your argument

It's safe to assume libshits have no actual response to this other than their baseless imaginary accusations

>>1337385
If conservatives ran california it would be even worse.

>>1337386
Wild headcanon, anon. Baseless as well.
There isn't a single Republican state with more proven corruption than California, NY, NJ or IL

Why can't conservatives grasp the concept of population density?

>>1337386
Statistically, it would have less corruption, but math was never your strong suit was it

>>1337401
>>1337401
>Why can't conservatives grasp the concept of population density
We can, and New Jersey, Rhode island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida... Only one of those state are the most corrupt.
According to the article the most corrupt are California, new Jersey, New York, and Illinois.
Are you going to pull any more arguments out of your ass, retard?

>schizo still pretending this article means anything
>keeps having to quantify all their lies of omission with weasel words
They're good at shilling, at least. Not much else.
Reddit send their... goodst?

>>1337403
Naah you're going to cover for the fact that in Texas and Florida the criminals in charge get off scot free. See Paxton, Rick Scott, et. al.

>>1337407
Do you have any evidence they violated Federal corruption laws?
Because it sounds like you're just flailing on the ground pulling things out of thin air because you're unhappy.
Op article is backed up by 10 years of criminal convictions and a New York times report

>>1337408
https://www.texastribune.org/2024/03/25/ken-paxton-plea-deal-securities-fraud-felony/
https://www.miamiherald.com/news/politics-government/article288431251.html

>>1337409
Only one of those was criminal corruption, but that's ok.
Now that you've proven your claim that there has been one or two Republicans at some point in time who have committed corruption, how about proving the overarching claim that I am assuming you made regarding it being more common in Republican led states.

Because once again statistically speaking you are incorrect and I'm still waiting for evidence to the contrary

>>1337411
Pretty funny coming from the party of George Santos. Oh wait, you want me to keep going?
https://floridapolitics.com/archives/693528-republicans-float-rules-change-after-criminally-charged-members-win-executive-committee-seats/
https://floridatrident.org/inside-jacksonvilles-culture-of-corruption-and-ongoing-republican-civil-war/
https://www.news-journalonline.com/story/news/politics/2021/08/02/frank-artiles-corruption-case-sheds-light-dark-money-senate-effort/5439061001/
https://prospect.org/politics/2023-09-19-gop-party-corrupt-oligarchy-paxton/
https://lonestarproject.net/texas-gop-corruption-app/
https://www.fox4news.com/news/texas-house-censure-brian-harrison-dade-phelan

>>1337121
I enjoy this thread

>>1337413
If you were trying to prove that Republicans currently commit more corruption crimes than Democrats, you are currently at 3 republicans from all across the US and the op article is about 600 democrats in California alone.
So yeah, you should probably keep going you have quite a long way to go to prove your point

>>1337445
You still don't get it, but I'll spoonfeed it to you as a public service. All of the most populous states are going to have the most corruption. The difference is the politicians in the red states have enough power to beat the charges and stay in office.

>>1337413
George Santos wasn't charged with anything related to corruption though. Are you sure you're ok, anon?

>>1337446
>>1337446
>All of the most populous states are going to have the most corruption
So why are Texas and Florida not on the New York times list of the most corrupt States?
Texas and Florida are the second and third most populous state after all

>>1337448
>actually defending Santos's corruption
>adding a touch of gaslighting at the end
lel I swear the summerfags are the worst this year

>>1337450
Can you cite anything that says he was arrested for corruption?
Because nobody's defending any corruption in here, but I do think you're imagining it when it doesn't exist as a coping mechanism

>>1337449
Read the linked articles, people like Paxton and his billionaire backers can judge shop around Texas until they find one of their golf buddies to dismiss the charges. That kind of thing doesn't happen in California.

>>1337451
I hate to be the one to have to tell you, Anon, but you don't actually need to be arrested for corruption to be corrupt.

>>1337452
Paxton? Or Santos? You're jumping all over the place here it's hard to follow your story
You implied Santos was corrupt and I see no evidence online of that, let alone an arrest
>>1337453
Well sure, if you just imagine the world you want it to be then nobody can argue with your fantasy land assertions.
Back here in reality we generally make claims backed up by evidence and have evidence to back up said claim

>>1337454
>You implied Santos was corrupt and I see no evidence online of that, let alone an arrest
It's a good thing you don't have to be aware of it for it to be true, then.
>Back here in reality we generally make claims backed up by evidence and have evidence to back up said claim
Naah you're being a semantical wizard because you know I'm right. The amount of corruption is a function of population density and has very little to do with political partisanship.

>>1337456
>Won't provide a source to back up a claim
>Haha, I'm right because I say I am
When do you get off work and have Rajeet take over? He's better at this than you are

>>1337456
>The amount of corruption is a function of population density and has very little to do with political partisanship.
Amazing you can't prove this and the fact that Arizona and Texas aren't the second and third most corrupt states prove you wrong.
Hell, according to nyt the top 4 corrupt states are all deep blue democrat strong holds.

With the current evidence that's present in this thread simply from OP, there is much more argument to be made against your claim than in favor of it. And since you can't seem to find any evidence to back up your claim, I guess you're just wrong

>>1337458
>Arizona and Texas
*Florida and Texas

>>1337456
But hey, even though you can't cite anything you claim, for the sake of not having you cry, I do believe that population of course is a factor for total corruption crimes.

But of course, what matters here is rate, not totals. And I have no idea what the New York times was referencing when they said that California New York New Jersey and Illinois were the most corrupt states, but the news article directly calls out political partisanship saying this is made possible by one party governance in these areas.

>>1337457
Has anyone ever told you that you're a very boring partisan troll?
>>1337458
>>1337459
I'm sure next you will try to portray all homelessness and crime as a blue state problem like only a retard who doesn't understand population density could. Oh wait, that's what the GOP is already doing and has done for 30 years now.

>mainstream media is all propaganda and lies
>unless it agrees with my shill talking points, in which case its 100% true
>this doesn't make me a flip flopping schizo for some reason, and you have to take me seriously
meth weekend is almost over, schizo

>>1337460
>what matters here is rate, not totals
For who? Even the NYT you're trying to wave around as though it's some gotcha article doesn't even do that.

>>1337463
>>1337462
>>1337461
It's another lefty melty

>>1337465
Is this some weird cope?

>>1337263
Do you really expect the fraudster Ken Paxton to investigate fraud?

>>1337491
This article is about rampant corruption

>>1337461
>I'm sure next you will try to portray all homelessness and crime as a blue state problem
Statistically speaking, homelessness rates are highly correlated with democrat leadership. Not even population, but democrat leadership.

For example Vermont has a homelessness rate matching that of New York, but with a fraction of the population, and Vermont is deep deep blue

>>1337498
"rampant corruption" is synonymous with Ken Paxton

>>1337518
>"rampant corruption" is synonymous with Ken Paxton
He's been cleared of any wrongdoing.

>>1337518
The new york times seems to think it's synonymous with one party rule in certain democrat states

>>1337121
Well fuck my in my ass and call me a sissy, this is another dumb article from the conservative biased times owned, operated, funded, and working for Donald Trump.
Funny why they aren't reporting on Paxton or Santos