Los Angeles Developer Gets 6 Years for Payoffs to Huizar

A developer involved in Los Angeles’ most explosive real estate corruption scandal in decades was sentenced on Friday to six years in federal prison on Friday.

Bel Air resident David Lee paid $500,000 to Jose Huizar–a former L.A. councilmember who represented Downtown L.A. and sat atop the city’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee–to buy influence on a 200-unit residential project in Downtown L.A.

U.S. District Court Judge John F. Walter had harsh words for Lee, according to a Department of Justice release, remarking that Lee showed a “lack of remorse and arrogance” in phone conversations that were brought as evidence and that his “only regret is that he got caught.”

Lee also was ordered to pay a $750,000 fine, the maximum penalty allowed, and an LLC controlled by the developer got hit with a fine of $1.5 million, in addition to other penalties.

The charges stemmed from the project Lee was planning years ago in Downtown L.A.., which drew opposition from a labor group. Lee contacted a Huizar fundraiser, and the councilmember eventually initiated a pay-for-play scheme over the project that led to the developer’s $500,000 bribe to Huizar and an assistant.

“Despite enjoying a life of privilege and abundance, Lee wanted more,” prosecutors argued in the case against Lee. “But instead of earning it, he wanted a guaranteed shortcut to circumvent the city process and silence community opponents threatening to thwart his attempts to expand his substantial real estate empire.”

Lee was convicted of multiple charges last June.

The developer’s bribe payment represented only one element of Huizar’s sprawling pay-to-play corruption scheme, which implicated several other officials and developers. Huizar pleaded guilty in January and is scheduled for a sentencing in December.

An entity called Shen Zhen New World, another developer involved in the scheme, received a $4 million fine and probation sentence in June.