The L.A. Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles was purchased by Shen Zhen in 2010 on behalf of its owner, Wei. At the time, then-LA councilman José Huizar represented the district that the building was in and chaired the Planning and Land Use Management Committee, which oversaw the city’s major commercial and residential development projects.
The bribes were an effort to get Huizar to approve the redevelopment of a 77-story skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles, which “would have been the tallest such structure west of the Mississippi River,” according to the DOJ.