LOS ANGELES—A Chinese real estate company was fined $4 million and placed on five years probation May 12 for bribing former Los Angeles City Councilman José Huizar with more than $1.5 million in cash, gambling trips, and escorts in exchange for the then-councilman’s support of a planned downtown hotel project.
Although he was also charged, Shen Zhen New World I’s billionaire owner Wei Huang fled to China after the charges were announced and has never appeared in a Los Angeles courtroom in connection with the case.
The October–November trial was one of three separate proceedings arising out of a 34-count indictment against Huizar and his associates alleging wide-ranging political corruption centered around the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, commonly referred to as the PLUM Committee, which oversaw commercial and residential development projects in the city and was headed by the ex-councilman….