Developer Agrees to Pay $1.2 Million to Resolve Criminal Probe into Executive’s Relationship with Ex-L.A. City Councilman Jose Huizar

         LOS ANGELES – A San Francisco-based company has agreed to pay $1.2 million to resolve a federal criminal investigation that focused on the company’s relationship with former Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar, who voted to approve its 35-story project in the Arts District.

         CP Employer, Inc., formerly known as Carmel Partners, Inc., agreed to make the payment in a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) announced today by United States Attorney Nick Hanna and FBI Assistant Director in Charge Kristi Koons Johnson. The three-year NPA with CP Employer is the latest development in the ongoing investigation into a wide-ranging “pay-to-play” scheme in which developers bribed Los Angeles city officials to secure official acts to benefit their real estate projects.

         Under the NPA, CP Employer admitted and accepted responsibility for the actions of its employees and agents and agreed to fully cooperate with the FBI’s ongoing public corruption probe. The company made the $1.2 million payment last month.

         The United States Attorney’s Office agreed not to prosecute the company for three years, as long as it refrains from any criminal conduct, for a series of reasons detailed in the NPA. Those reasons include CP Employer’s acceptance of responsibility for its conduct, a demonstrated commitment to compliance, and cooperation with the government’s investigation. The NPA also notes the company has taken several remedial measures, including enhancing its compliance program, creating a “corporate policy against violations of all anti-bribery/anti-corruption laws” that will address political contributions and gifts to public officials, and terminating a consultant who later pleaded guilty to criminal charges stemming from the investigation.

         The statement of facts attached to the NPA outlines CP Employer’s conduct in relation to former Los Angeles City Councilmember Jose Huizar, who faces a trial in June on a 41-count racketeering indictment, and real estate development consultant Morris Goldman, who is scheduled to be sentenced in August after pleading guilty last year to brokering deals in which a CP Employer executive agreed to make $50,000 in political contributions in exchange for Huizar’s official actions on the company’s mixed-use project in the Arts District of downtown Los Angeles.

         In the statement of facts, CP Employer admits a series of facts, including:

• Goldman funneled a series of requests from Huizar that CP Employer make contributions to two political action committees for Huizar’s benefit;
• CP Employer made three of the four requested political contributions for a total of $75,000;
• the company official in charge of the Arts District project – “Executive M” – met with Huizar and agreed to assist with political fundraising efforts to benefit a Huizar relative running for his City Council seat and to obtain information on a person who was “causing problems for Huizar’s family”;
• while Executive M ultimately did not help with fundraising, the company official obtained the requested background report at company expense and without the knowledge of CP Employer’s Compliance Department or senior management;
• Executive M personally delivered the background report to Huizar, at which time Huizar solicited a $250,000 personal payment in exchange for reducing CP Employer’s public benefit payment – a request that Executive M did not act on, but which he withheld from his senior management and the company’s Compliance Department; and
• Huizar sought additional help from Executive M – background information on Huizar staffers and a potential job with CP Employer once he left the City Council – which Executive M did not act on, but again withheld this information from company management and its Compliance Department.

         The statement of facts also outlines how the City’s Planning Commission approved the project in June 2018 with a requirement that 11 percent of the housing units be reserved for “very low income” residents. But the Huizar-chaired Planning and Land Use Management (PLUM) Committee approved the project four months later and accepted the company’s request to reduce the affordable housing requirement. The PLUM Committee also voted to deny an appeal of the project that had been filed by a labor union.

         The NPA does not preclude or limit the investigation or prosecution of individuals, including any current or former CP Employer officer, employee or agent.

         The matter involving CP Employer and the criminal cases stemming from the investigation are being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Mack E. Jenkins, Chief of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section, and Assistant United States Attorneys Veronica Dragalin and Melissa J. Mills, also of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section.

         Any member of the public who has information related to this investigation or any other public corruption matter in the City of Los Angeles is encouraged to send information to the FBI’s email tip line – pctips-losangeles@fbi.gov – or to call the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office at (310) 477-6565.