Federal prosecutors launched their second attempt to convict former Los Angeles

D

eputy

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Ayor Raymond Chan was this week accused of corruption by portraying him as a central figure in an elaborate pay-to-play scheme.

In opening arguments on Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Atty. Brian R. Faerstein told jurors that Chan and former City Councilman Jose Huizar used the downtown real estate boom of the past decade to enrich themselves and their allies.

Faerstein described Chan as a crucial intermediary between Chinese developers seeking to build high-rises downtown and Huizar, who headed the powerful commission that served as a clearinghouse for such projects.

“[Chan] received bribes for himself, and he received bribes for other government officials,”

Faerstein

said.

Chan’s first trial on charges of racketeering, bribery, honest services fraud and lying to federal investigators was derailed after his attorney, Harland Braun, was hospitalized and unable to return to work for months. A judge declared a mistrial

in

April

.

Chan is the latest defendant charged in the City Hall corruption investigation, dubbed “Casino Loyale” by the federal government, to face trial. Huizar, who pleaded guilty to racketeering and tax evasion, was sentenced to 13 years in prison in January.

George Esparza, Huizar’s former assistant, pleaded guilty to racketeering but has not yet been convicted. He will testify against Chan. Real estate consultant George Chiang, who worked with Chan and also pleaded guilty to racketeering, is also expected to testify.

John Hanusz, Chan’s new attorney, agreed that Huizar and the others were deeply corrupt and committed crimes on a level that was “cinematic in nature.” But while Huizar and Esparza accepted flights to Las Vegas, casino chips and luxury hotel stays, Chan received none of that, he said.

While Chan worked with developers, he wasn’t motivated by greed, but by a desire to make LA more business-friendly

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kindly, said Hanusz.

“There was no quid pro quo in this case with Ray Chan,” he said. “That was absolutely the case with Jose Huizar.”

Hanusz told the jury that some government witnesses are liars who committed crimes and now hope their testimony will result in a lighter prison sentence.

The case against Chan covers the five-year period from 2013 to 2018, when Huizar headed the council’s Planning and Land Use Management Committee. In that position, Huizar had the power to decide when real estate projects would get a public hearing and when they would be sent to the full council for a vote.

Chan was the top executive of the Department of Construction and Safety until 2016, when he became deputy mayor in charge of economic development under Mayor Eric Garcetti. He held that job for a little more than a year before leaving city government to become a private sector consultant representing real estate developers.

Prosecutors have accused Chan of secretly setting up a consulting firm while working for the city and overseeing government actions for which he was paid by a developer after leaving his job with the city.

The federal government also alleges that Chan helped Huizar obtain bribes from a Chinese developer who later wanted to build a 77-story skyscraper in Huizar’s district. Huizar later admitted that the developer helped him secure a $600,000 loan that he used to secretly settle a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former employee just before a re-election campaign.

Prosecutors said Chan helped Huizar obtain the money after Huizar stopped a proposed merger of the Department of City Planning and the Department of Construction and Safety. That merger threatened Chan’s job as general manager at Building and Safety, prosecutors said.

Shen Zhen New World I, the company that proposed the 77-story tower, was convicted of providing Huizar with a wide range of bribes, including trips to Vegas. A judge found the company $4 million. The owner, Wei Huang, fled the country and is now on the run, the Justice Department said.

In his comments, Hanusz called the government’s case against Chan a “fiction.” Chan was a respected city leader with decades of experience who focused on breaking down bureaucratic barriers to new construction, he said.

“He rolled out the red carpet” for real estate development, the attorney said. “And this city benefited from it.”