![]() Even if the money does not go directly to the public official, those payments can constitute a misuse of that official’s position, he said.īecause indirect bribes are “a step removed” from an official, defense attorneys may be able to present a wider range of explanations for why someone was paid, said Jennifer Williams, a former federal prosecutor who is now a partner at Summa LLP.Jan Miense Molenaer was part of an artistic family from Haarlem: his brother Bartholomeus and nephew Klaes, with whom he sometimes collaborated, were also artists. Pelissero, senior scholar in government at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. They know whether he got anything, and he got zero,” he said.įinancial benefits for family members are a familiar phenomenon in corruption cases, said John P. Prosecutors’ case against Chan will fall apart, Braun said, because they lack evidence of a quid pro quo. However, those activities do not come close to the definition of a bribe under federal law, he said. Chan recommended people for various jobs while working as a consultant, Braun said. Harland Braun, Chan’s attorney, argued that prosecutors are wrongly portraying Chan’s ordinary business activities as federal crimes. Prosecutors have accused Chan and Huizar of orchestrating a pay-to-play scheme in which financial benefits were traded for “official acts” to help real estate projects. The charges against Chan, a Monterey Park resident, are part of the larger case against Huizar, who stepped down last year. ![]() Neither has been arrested or publicly charged. Neither Jacinto nor his lawyer responded to inquiries from The Times. Those emails, obtained by The Times through a public records request, feature the same dates and wording as emails mentioned in the indictment. However, emails sent to and from Jacinto show that he is the city commissioner mentioned by prosecutors. Jacinto, who quit the public works board in 2019, also is not named in the indictment. While his relative worked for Wang, Jacinto received requests from Chan and his business partners to step in and help the Luxe with the city’s permitting process, according to the indictment. Jacinto worked closely with the city’s Bureau of Engineering, which issues certain construction permits to real estate developers. He viewed Jacinto as someone with influence over that project at City Hall, according to details in the indictment. However, The Times identified him last year as Andy Wang, based on statements made by prosecutors in court.Ĭhan had been working as a real estate consultant on a plan to demolish the Luxe City Center in downtown Los Angeles and replace it with new hotel and residential towers. Federal investigators have not publicly named the businessman, saying he had been cooperating with the FBI. That businessman had been looking to get his products into downtown high-rises, prosecutors said. “Sometimes it’s more difficult for the jury to understand that the politician is getting a benefit if the money is going to some company that a family member is connected to.” “A jury can easily understand that the politician is corrupt if he’s putting cash in his pocket,” said Kelly, who is now a defense lawyer with Nixon Peabody LLP and is not connected to the case. Prosecutors also may face greater difficulties in court in proving that such circuitous financial arrangements violate the law, said former federal prosecutor Brian T. Such job offers, even modest ones, were a way of greasing the wheels of the city bureaucracy, prosecutors allege.Įxperts say indirect bribes can be more difficult to uncover than a typical quid pro quo in which someone gives money directly to a government official. ![]() Prosecutors brought an indictment alleging that former Deputy Mayor Raymond Chan, while working for downtown developers, set up a job for the family member of a city commissioner had his company hire a relative of a City Council aide and proposed a fake consulting contract with another city staffer’s mother. attorney’s corruption case targeting Los Angeles City Hall first broke into view, much of the public’s attention focused on vivid descriptions of cash bribes, escort services and lavish trips to Las Vegas.īut as the investigation has unspooled over the past year, federal prosecutors have laid out another, less sensational set of allegations: that a deputy mayor-turned-real estate consultant worked to arrange “indirect bribes” for city officials by routing the money through those officials’ family members.
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