Las Vegas, alias Vice City, is one of the four largest casinos in the world, and the casinos lined up will pamper their big customers with a lot of benefits, and Huang Wei is one of them.
He was chairman of the shenzhen New World Group, a real estate development firm, and was the owner of two major hotels in Los Angeles at the time: the Sheraton Universal Hotel and the former Marriott Hotel on West Third Street, where he later proposed to build a 77-story skyscraper on the West Coast, but never built it.
He lost $13 million at Palazzo and is the "god of wealth" that many casinos dream of. To welcome him, the casino offers him a complimentary private jet transfer and presidential suite accommodation overlooking the Las Vegas Strip.
But one day in July 2015, an uninvited guest he brought caught the alarm of palazzo casino security and eventually caught the attention of the FBI, uncovering a nationwide los Angeles city government corruption den.
The billionaire, who works in real estate development, picked up from Los Angeles using a luxury private jet provided by the casino to pick up VIPs, was local city councilor Jose Huizar.
A few hours later, Huang Wei and Whizar entered Hall 8 of the Palazzo Casino, a private room reserved for VIPs, where people typically bet on $25,000 to $100,000.
Night manager Stephen Fryson arranged Fordy's play area. According to the FBI, when the dealer saw Huang Wei hand over $65,000 of the chips to Whizar that night, the casino began tracking lawmakers' use of the chips.
According to the law, as a politician, you can gamble in a casino only after submitting documents showing that he has not used public funds.
Staff found that Whizar, who followed Huang to gamble, did not submit disclosure documents known as "Political Public Figures" (PEPs). There was also no room reserved for the lawmaker, and it is unclear whether he lived in Mr. Huang's presidential suite.
Every time We stay at Palazzo Casino, Huang Wei reserves a luxurious Presidential Suite with an Italian marble foyer, grand piano, massage room, bar and restaurant. As part of the $6 million giveaway that Palazzo Casino gave to Huang Wei, the $7,000 per night room fee was waived.
Prosecutors said Mr. Huang also frequently used expensive spa and women's services at Palazzo Casino, but did not specify whether the person who actually used it was him or Whizar.
The casino manager entered Whizar's name into a computer system to alert all dealers to whether he had used a scorecard in his name, which the casino used to reward gamblers for prize money, which required a "political public figure" statement.
When Huang Wei went upstairs to dine at a high-end club at dinnertime, Whizar also left Hall 8, leaving nearly $18,000 in chips at a table to return later.
According to surveillance video, Whizar traveled to the main casino building with his assistant, George Esparza, and Ricky Zheng, Huang Wei's executive director of the company.
Whizar handed his own scorecard to the dealer at the table. The dealer swiped and saw the alarm. When Fresson received the news, he immediately sent a senior executive to the casino lobby and asked Whizar to fill out the "political public figure" document.
The FBI later said in a request to apply for an arrest warrant that Whizar "twice checked the documents of politically exposed figures and refused to fill them out twice." He gives the impression of trying to "keep a low profile".
In desperation, Flaisson had no choice but to escort Whizar out of the casino. On the way out, he asked his assistant to cash in on the $50 chip.
After dinner, Huang Wei returned to Hall 8 to find the $17,800 chips that Whizar had left on the table, and then continued to gamble.
Two weeks later, Jonathan Solomon, then chief compliance officer for las Vegas Sands, which belongs to palazzo casino, reported to the FBI about "suspicious activity" by Whizar and Huang Wei in the casino.
That's how the corruption investigation began, the FBI said.
Huang Wei used the casino plane to bring Whizar to the Palazzo Casino at least three times. But Whizar has never bought any chips at the casino, and records show his total spending is zero. However, he cashed out $36,500 in chips at the casino. The FBI later found these footage captured by surveillance at the casino.
Prosecutors said Mr. Huang gave Whizar more than $53,000 in Casino chips at Palazzo before his trip in July. In the months that followed, Mr. Huang offered A.D. Wizal another $141,000 chip at casinos such as Caesars Palace, Cosmopolitan, and Wynn.
The casino chips were part of a bribe of more than $800,000 that Huang Wei paid to Whizar in an attempt to exchange the Los Angeles city government's approval of the skyscraper.
In 2018, police searched Huizar's home and found nearly $130,000 in cash, as well as red envelopes printed with the Chinese character "Daji Dali"... Federal prosecutors say he accepted at least $1.5 million in illegal benefits, and the 113-page indictment accuses him of using his power at the city government for financial gain and helping real estate developers pay bribes, including cash, free flights, casino chips and other benefits.
A chain of people fell like dominoes as Whizar was arrested. His assistants, Mr. Espazar, real estate adviser George Chiang, political fundraiser Justin Jangwoo Kim and former lawmaker Mitchell Englander have pleaded guilty. Also involved was Raymond Chan, a vice mayor of Chinese descent.
Whizar insisted on not pleading guilty. His lawyer said the lawmaker did not engage in "official acts" that constituted federal bribery in his dealings with Mr. Huang.
In the recent court battle over the search warrant, Whizar's lawyers sought to prevent prosecutors from using his personal emails as evidence in a trial scheduled for October this year, saying the FBI's july 2016 search warrant to view Whizar's email account failed to show evidence of a possible bribery and therefore violated his rights.
The judge rejected the request.
According to a statement released by the prosecutor's office, Whizar could face a maximum sentence of up to several decades. For example, money-laundering can be punishable by up to 20 years in federal prisons, while the maximum sentence for making false statements to financial institutions is 30 years.
Huang Wei, now a fugitive charged with bribery and other crimes, is no longer inaccessible, but a branch of his real estate development company, Shenzhen New World Group, based in China, is challenging the allegations.
"We strongly disagree with the government's assessment of the facts, but all of our opinions on the government's claims will be raised in court," the company's lawyer said.
Source: Holy Land Ya GO
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