Breaking: Ex-aide to L.A. Councilman Jose Huizar to plead guilty in ‘pay-to-play’ bribery scheme
Esparza is the fourth person in the City Hall corruption case to agree to plead guilty over the last two three months, as FBI agents and federal prosecutors forge ahead with their sprawling investigation.
to scheming to falsify facts in a probe of his acceptance of envelopes of cash and other gifts. In addition, former City Planning Commissioner Justin Jangwoo Kim agreed to plead guilty to bribery in a case involving a real estate developer, a Los Angeles City Council member and aAlthough federal prosecutors did not name the council member, their description of him made clear they were referring to Huizar, who represents a district stretching from downtown to Eagle Rock.to a racketeering charge, admitting he was involved in a scheme in which a Chinese real estate company bribed a council member in exchange for help on a major development project. Details in that filing also make clear prosecutors were referring to Huizar. In the Chiang filing, prosecutors said the councilman had been leading a criminal enterprise that relied on bribes and other illegal acts. Esparza was hired by Huizar in September 2009 and stayed in the office until January 2018, according to the city’s personnel department. Three years ago, federal investigators served a search warrant on Google to obtain correspondence contained in the email address “georgesparza@gmail.com.” The search yielded hundreds of relevant messages, according to court records.that sought evidence of possible crimes including bribery, extortion and money laundering. The warrant, which became widely known more than a year ago, did not say that investigators had gathered evidence of criminal activity by those individuals. Esparza told The Times last year that he had stopped working for the councilman because he was “profoundly uncomfortable” with the councilman’s conduct. “As Huizar’s special assistant,” he said in a statement at the time, “I was in one of the best positions to see how the council member wielded his political power in ways in which, while he apparently had normalized, I did not feel aligned with how I wanted to live my political and personal life. “So I got out before I became collateral damage,” he continued. “And I took steps to protect myself. Now I work for someone that does it the right way.”At the time, Esparza did not directly answer questions about whether he observed or participated in any illegal acts. After resigning from his City Hall post, Esparza secured a job with Carrillo, the state assemblywoman, who also previously worked for Huizar.by Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon for engaging in inappropriate workplace conduct. Rendon cited allegations that Esparza had made “inappropriate sexual comments.”
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