Six years after lavish Vegas trip, Councilmember John Lee faces ethics allegations

Six years ago, Los Angeles City Councilmember Mitchell Englander and John Lee, then Englander’s chief of staff, indulged in a lavish Las Vegas trip that would change the arc of their lives.

With a Los Angeles businessman picking up the check, Englander and others enjoyed a hotel stay, dinner and bottle service drinks during that 2017 trip. But what happens in Vegas rarely stays in Vegas, especially when an elected official and the FBI are both involved.

Englander stepped down from his seat in 2018, aware that he was in the FBI’s crosshairs. His exit set the stage for Lee’s ascent, with Lee winning a special election to fill his former boss’s northwest San Fernando Valley seat in 2019.

Englander was criminally charged in March 2020 — days after Lee won another election to keep the seat for a regular four-year term.

Lee was never charged with wrongdoing by federal prosecutors. But this week the Los Angeles Ethics Commission accused Lee of an array of governmental ethics violations stemming from the trip.

The commission’s filing also publicly identified Lee as “City Staffer B” — an anonymous figure in the government’s indictment against Englander who allegedly indulged in some of the same perks as his boss.

Lee has long been thought to be Staffer B, but the councilman has never confirmed it.

According to Ethics Commission investigators, Lee accepted “multiple gifts from a businessperson and a developer, most of which exceeded the gift limit,” in 2016 and 2017. Several of those gifts were alleged to have been provided during the 2017 Vegas trip with Englander.

The commission also alleges that Lee assisted Englander in attempting to mislead the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office about whether Englander and Lee provided reimbursements for gifts received during the trip.

In a statement released Monday night, Lee denied the allegations, saying commission investigators “drastically inflated” the amount of food and beverages he consumed on the trip. He called the accusations “completely false.”

“I refuse to be bullied by investigators that are seemingly more focused on garnering headlines than pursuing facts, evidence and the truth, even at the expense of people’s reputations,” Lee said. “For these reasons, I will vigorously fight these baseless accusations.”

California

L.A. councilman under fire over FBI probe, Vegas trip with his indicted former boss

L.A. City Councilman John Lee’s election opponent says he should resign after his connection to an FBI probe of his former boss is revealed.

March 10, 2020

The Ethics Commission conducted a probable cause conference on Aug. 31 and served Lee with a nine-page accusation on Sept. 26.

The commission is expected to hold an evidentiary hearing on the allegations. After the hearings, commission members will need to determine whether the alleged violations occurred and, if so, what penalties should apply.

The proceedings bring fresh instability to a City Hall rocked by a string of corruption scandals. The accusations could also complicate Lee’s reelection bid in 2024.

The 2017 Vegas trip was intended as a celebration of Lee’s decision to resign from his post at City Hall and become a consultant in the private sector, according to the Ethics Commission filing. But the activities of the group that went on the trip, including Englander’s receipt of an envelope containing $10,000 in a casino bathroom, led to a federal investigation.

That probe resulted in the filing of obstruction-of-justice charges against Englander.

Englander is one of four current or former council members to be criminally charged since 2020. He pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators and was later sentenced to 14 months in prison.

Shortly after charges were brought against Englander, Lee said that he was present during the Vegas trip but was “unaware of any illegal activities” and had cooperated with the FBI.

In their filing, Ethics Commission investigators accused Lee of two counts of accepting gifts in excess of the amounts permitted under city law, three counts of failing to properly disclose the gifts that he received, four counts of misusing his position and one count of aiding and abetting another official — Englander, his former boss — in misusing their position.

A businessperson who is not named in the Ethics Commission accusation gave Lee and the others access to VIP “comps” from the resort and casino, including hotel rooms. Lee accepted about $600 worth of perks, which included two days at the hotel, investigators said.

At a nightclub, the businessperson paid approximately $24,000 for bottle service. A second individual, a developer, paid an additional $10,000 for bottle service. The per-person value of all the bottle service was estimated to be more than $5,600, according to the accusation.

Lee went on the Vegas trip on June 1. He left his chief of staff position on June 12, but he didn’t report any gifts from the reporting period of Jan. 1, 2017, to June 12, 2017, investigators said.

According to the Ethics Commission accusation, Englander sent two checks to the businessperson after Englander was contacted by the FBI around Sept. 1, 2017. The businessperson received the checks on Sept. 14.

The two checks were each in the amount of $442 and dated Aug. 4. One check was from Lee and the other from Englander. The checks were sent to make it appear as if Englander and Lee had written the checks prior to Englander’s FBI interview, according to the accusation.

If Lee is ultimately found to have committed the violations spelled out by investigators, he would face financial penalties. The vast majority of the allegations can result in fines of $5,000 per count.

Lee is running for another four-year term in the March municipal election. So far, he has only one opponent running against him, according to city filings. Granada Hills South Neighborhood Council Vice President Mike Benedetto has yet to report any fundraising.

Former Los Angeles City Ethics Commission President Serena Oberstein, who lives in Northridge, said Tuesday that she hasn’t ruled out running for Lee’s seat.

Oberstein, who serves as executive director of the humanitarian nonprofit Jewish World Watch, said that she has been contacted by numerous individuals, including some political consultants, since news about the allegations against Lee broke.