L.os Angeles City Councilmember John Lee is dealing with a steep advantageous for his infamous 2017 journey to Las Vegas, with the town’s Ethics Commission saying he should pay $138,424 in a case involving dear meals and costly nightclub “bottle service.”
On Wednesday, the fee determined 4 to 0 that Lee, who represents the northwest San Fernando Valley, dedicated two counts of violating the town’s present regulation and three counts of violating a regulation requiring that such presents be disclosed to the general public.
By a 3-1 vote, the panel discovered that Lee violated 5 further counts of misusing his metropolis place or serving to his boss on the time — Councilmember Mitchell Englander — misuse his place. After that, the fee voted unanimously to levy the utmost monetary penalty, as really helpful by metropolis ethics investigators.
The fee went a lot additional than an administrative regulation decide, who, after a multiday listening to, concluded that Lee violated 5 of 10 counts and really helpful a advantageous of almost $44,000.
Commission President Manjusha Kulkarni argued for the utmost advantageous, saying it will discourage others from violating ethics legal guidelines. She stated Lee immediately benefited from his choice to not report the presents — which got here from three males who sought enterprise with City Hall — on his financial disclosure varieties.
Lee, by failing to report these presents, gained an unfair benefit throughout his 2019 and 2020 election campaigns, each of which he gained by small margins, Kulkarni stated.
“There was a concealment effort made there in an effort to win these two elections,” she stated.
Commissioner Aryeh Cohen voted in opposition to the 5 further ethics counts, saying he wasn’t satisfied that the present info would have made a distinction. Last yr, after metropolis investigators accused Lee of violating present legal guidelines, he gained reelection handily.
“Voters knew, and he gained by a bigger margin” than in 2019 or 2020, Cohen stated. “So I don’t assume that that was a misuse of a place or gaining profit from it.”
Brian Hildreth, an lawyer representing Lee, had argued for a most advantageous of $10,000. Appearing earlier than the fee, he stated metropolis investigators incorrectly calculated the worth of the presents and didn’t have in mind how a lot Lee had truly consumed on the food and drinks venues.
Lee, in a press release, vowed to maintain combating the fees, calling the case “wasteful and political.” An attraction would have to be filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
“Today is however one step within the strategy of combating these baseless fees,” he stated. “I look ahead to lastly having a possibility to have this matter adjudicated in a good and neutral setting.”
The Lee case revolves round presents — largely meals and alcohol but in addition resort stays, transportation and $1,000 in playing chips — supplied by the three businessmen: Andy Wang, who peddled Italian cupboards, “good house” expertise and facial recognition software program; architect and developer Chris Pak; and lobbyist Michael Bai.
Lee, whereas working as Englander’s chief of employees, flew along with his boss and several other others — together with Wang and Bai — to Las Vegas in 2017. Englander resigned from workplace the next yr, after being contacted by FBI brokers in regards to the journey.
In 2020, federal prosecutors accused Englander of accepting $15,000 in money from Wang, mendacity to FBI brokers and obstructing their investigation. He ultimately pleaded responsible to a single rely of offering false info to the FBI and was sentenced to 14 months in jail.
In 2023, Englander agreed to pay $79,830 to settle an Ethics Commission case centered on his personal present regulation violations. That similar yr, the fee filed a case in opposition to Lee, saying he violated the present regulation not simply in Vegas but in addition at eating places in downtown L.A. and Koreatown.
Lee repeatedly denied the allegations and argued that the statute of limitations had run out. The fee responded by scheduling a multiday listening to, held in June earlier than Administrative Law Judge Ji-Lan Zang.
During these proceedings, Lee stated he made religion effort to pay his personal approach and, in some instances, declined to eat throughout meals. For instance, he testified that he didn’t bear in mind consuming throughout the conferences at Yxta Cocina Mexicana and Water Grill, each in downtown L.A.
Zang, in her written report back to the fee, referred to as these denials “not credible,” saying it “strains credulity” to imagine that he would be a part of the group at these eating places with out consuming any meals.
During the Las Vegas journey, Lee stayed on the Aria resort, went to Blossom restaurant and spent a night with the group at Hakkasan Nightclub.
At Blossom, Wang ordered a dinner value almost $2,500 that included shark fin soup, Peking duck and Kobe beef. Lee testified over the summer season that he arrived on the restaurant in time for a dessert of chook’s nest soup, tasting it and deciding he didn’t prefer it.
At Hakkasan Nightclub later that evening, Wang bought three rounds of bottle service for the group for round $8,000 apiece, whereas Pak bought a fourth spherical for $8,418.75.
Lee stated he gave Wang $300 in money as reimbursement for his drinks, withdrawing cash from an ATM. Hildreth, his lawyer, informed the fee that drinks had been served to numerous nightclubgoers.
“The testimony and the proof means that dozens and dozens of individuals had been becoming a member of Councilmember Lee and others,” he stated.
Kulkarni, earlier than the vote, stated she was particularly troubled that Lee, after being contacted by FBI brokers in 2017, despatched Wang a backdated test for $442 to reimburse him for a few of the Vegas journey. That act by itself, she stated, constituted “a really critical offense.”
“That will not be a mistake that one does. That is an affirmative act,” she stated.
Hildreth stated his shopper wrote a reimbursement test straight away however that it was misplaced, necessitating a second, backdated test. He additionally famous that Lee cooperated with federal regulation enforcement and metropolis ethics investigators.
“He sat for 2 interviews with the FBI,” Hildreth stated. “That’s not one thing that deserves a punitive penalty.”
