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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal authorities announced new charges and additional defendants Monday in a wide-ranging corruption case against a Los Angeles city councilman and his alleged associates.
The casino industry is often associated with organized crime and political (or public) corruption, especially in Las Vegas as it was developing in the 1950s and 1960s. This reputation persisted with Vegas through most of the 1980s, until corporations began to buy existing casinos and build new ones. Ramsey returns to reveal the way in which the LVMPD encourages and rewards corrupt practices. Watch the full doc to uncover the whole story behind America's. The local newspaper Las Vegas Sun and its editor Hank Greenspun led a crusade in those days to expose all the criminal ties, activities, and government corruption in Las Vegas. His investigative reporting and editorials led to the exposure of Clark County Sheriff Glen Jones ' ownership of a brothel and the resignation of Lieutenant Governor.
The new defendants include a former deputy mayor, the billionaire chairman of a Chinese real estate company and a Bel Air developer, according to a superseding federal indictment unsealed Monday in the Central District of California. The case is the first time federal prosecutors have levied charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act in a public corruption investigation that ensnared a Los Angeles elected official.
The city councilman, Jose Huizar, was arrested in June on allegations he masterminded a $1.5 million pay-to-play scheme tied to the approval of large building projects. Prosecutors say the scheme sought to illegally profit from development of the city’s burgeoning downtown district.
A federal grand jury has heard testimony from witnesses in the FBI’s corruption investigation of City Councilman Ricki Barlow, the Las Vegas Review-Journal has learned. Las Vegas billionaire Sheldon Adelson, who owns the Venetian, Palazzo in Vegas, and the new Sands hotel in Macau is involved in a wrongful termination civil trial, brought forth by Steven Jacobs. Jacobs was the former CEO of Adelson’s Macau operations. This trial is insider whistle-blowing of major proportions.
The new indictment adds more charges in the case. Huizar left office earlier this year and previously pleaded not guilty. He is expected to be arraigned on the superseding indictment on Dec. 7. His attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nick Hanna, U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, called the scope of the alleged corruption “staggering” and said in a news release that Huizar and his associates “repeatedly violated the public trust by soliciting and accepting numerous cash bribes and other financial benefits, turning Huizar’s City Council seat into a money-making criminal enterprise.”
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The case has already resulted in guilty pleas from former City Councilman Mitchell Englander, a former Huizar aide, a City Hall lobbyist and two real estate consultants.
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The “Operation Casino Loyale” investigation dates back to 2015, when authorities in Las Vegas noticed Huizar cashing out a large amount of casino chips from a billionaire Chinese developer, identified in Monday’s court documents as Wei Huang, 55, a resident of Shenzhen, China. Huizar’s former aide acknowledged in his plea agreement that the scheme dates to 2013. Authorities have stressed that the investigation is not over.
Huang also has a home in San Marino, California, and is chairman and president of U.S.-based Shen Zhen New World I, LLC. He faces charges of bribery, honest services fraud and Travel Act violations. His company is also named as a defendant in the case.
Authorities say Huang sought to build a 77-story tower in Huizar’s district that would become the largest skyscraper west of the Mississippi River. The developer, who already had a hotel in the district, is accused of providing benefits worth $800,000 to Huizar and others that included a dozen trips to Las Vegas casinos and funds to settle a sexual harassment lawsuit against the councilman.
Huang and his counsel have been notified there is a federal warrant for his arrest. His attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
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Monday’s superseding indictment also charges Raymond Chan, a deputy mayor who oversaw economic development for Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2016 and 2017. Also known as She Wah Kwong, he was additionally a former general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Building and Safety.
The allegations against Chan include agreeing to accept more than $100,000 for official acts to benefit a project by another Chinese developer.
Chan retired in 2017 amid praise from Garcetti calling him a “true public servant” whose “leadership has contributed to unprecedented growth across Los Angeles,” according to a city announcement.
Chan has been directed to surrender to federal authorities and is expected to be arraigned on the superseding indictment Tuesday.
His attorney, Harland Braun, said his client will plead not guilty and intends to fight the charges.
“He just did his job,” Braun said Monday. “He was shocked, I was shocked. He said ‘I’m not guilty of anything here. I want to testify, I want my trial.’ ”
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The Meadows Casino & Hotel (a.k.a. The Meadows Club) was the first resort hotel-casino in the Las Vegas area, opening in 1931. The Meadows was located at Fremont Street and East Charleston Boulevard near the Boulder Highway, and outside the Las Vegas city limits. Its location was designed to attract workers and tourists from the Hoover Dam. The hotel had 30 to 50 rooms (accounts vary). The hotel-casino operated a nightclub, featuring the Meadows Revue and the Meadow Larks band. It also had a landing strip for small airplanes.[1][2][3][4][5]
History[edit]
In early 1931, Nevada governor Fred B. Balzar signed into law Assembly Bill 98, which legalized gambling, and the Meadows was one of the first casinos to open after legalization. The Meadows was owned by Anthony Cornero (aka Anthony Stralla), who was a major bootlegger during Prohibition, operating out of Los Angeles. However, because of a bootlegging conviction, the casino was licensed in the names of his brothers, Frank and Louis Stralla. The Meadows opened on May 2, 1931. Cornero sold the hotel in July 1931 to Alex Richmond. In September 1931, a fire broke out at the hotel. Because it was outside the Las Vegas city limits, the Las Vegas city fire department refused to fight the fire.[6]
The casino was leased in 1932 to Guido Marchetti, Frank Miller and Earl West.[7] Then, in 1935, the property was sold to Dave Stearns, Sam Stearns and Larry Potter. The Meadows later became a house of prostitution, operated by Eddie Clippinger.[8] The Meadows was closed down in 1942 by the federal government under provisions of the May Act,[9] as it was near Las Vegas Army Airfield (now Nellis Air Force Base). It later caught on fire and was demolished.
Afterward[edit]
Tony Cornero later owned the gambling ships SS Rex and SS Tango, in the late 1930s, and the SS Lux, in 1946, operating off the coast of Southern California. All three ships were eventually shut down by the government.[10] In 1945, Cornero also briefly owned the S.S. Rex Club on the ground floor of the Apache Hotel in Downtown Las Vegas (now the site of Binion's Gambling Hall and Hotel).[11] He was developing the Stardust Resort and Casino when he died in 1955 while playing craps at the Desert Inn.[12]
Eddie Clippinger and his wife, Roxie Clippinger, later operated Roxie's, a well known bordello in the Formyle section of Las Vegas on the Boulder Highway. In 1954, the federal government shut it down. The Las Vegas Sun newspaper reported on the political corruption surrounding the operation of Roxies. Glen Jones, the Sheriff of Clark County, filed a $1 million libel lawsuit against Las Vegas Sun owner Hank Greenspun, but later withdrew the lawsuit. In a reelection bid that year, Jones finished last in a field of five candidates and lost the office he had held for 12 years.[13][14][15]
References[edit]
- ^Meadows Club - Online Nevada Encyclopedia[1]
- ^Video Vault: The First Las Vegas Carpet Joint news3lv.com[2]
- ^Tony Cornero Las Vegas Review-Journal February 7, 1999[3]
- ^Meadows Resort. Rand-Om Ramblings. March 2, 2013. randnoel.blogspot.com[4]
- ^Las Vegas That Fabulous First Century by Thomas Ainlay[5]
- ^Fire Destroys Noted Resort San Bernardino Sun September 9, 1931[6]
- ^The Men Who Made Las Vegas - Tony 'The Hat' striplv.com[7]
- ^'So Much for Fond Five-Dollar Memories': Prostitution in Las Vegas, 1905-1955 by Marie Katherine Rowley May 1, 2012. UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones[8]
- ^Classification 18: May Act - National Archives[9]
- ^Tony Cornero And The S.S. Rex Los Angeles Magazine June 28, 2013
- ^SS Rex Club - Online Nevada Encyclopedia
- ^Stardust Hotel - Online Nevada Encyclopedia
- ^Over a century, Four Mile has gone from trailside oasis to brothel to bar Las Vegas Review Journal April 2, 2012[10]
- ^Reid, Ed; Demaris, Ovid. The Green Felt Jungle. Trident Press. 1963, Chapter 6. [11]
- ^A powerful vehicle for changeLas Vegas Sun July 1, 2000
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