LA City Councilmember John Lee faces $138K ethics fine over Vegas trip

The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission on Wednesday found City Councilmember John Lee violated a series of governmental ethics laws and unanimously imposed a fine of more than $138,000.

The fine was in connection to a 2017 trip he took to Las Vegas when he was chief of staff to his predecessor, former Councilmember Mitch Englander. Englander also went on the trip.

Three men who sought business with the city provided pricey meals and expensive bottle service, as well as gambling chips to Lee, according to the commission.

The panel found Lee committed two counts of violating the city’s law prohibiting council members from accepting certain gifts and three counts of violating a disclosure law. It also found Lee misused his city position or helped Englander misuse his position.

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City ethics investigators recommended the penalty and $138,124 fine — the maximum possible.

The decision “underscores the importance of ethical and transparent conduct on the part of elected officials and other public servants,” Manjusha Kulkarni, president of the Ethics Commission, said in a statement.

“It is essential to a properly functioning democracy that those who serve in positions of leadership and influence act in the best interests of the public, with the highest level of integrity, and not in ways that are designed to deceive and promote self-interests,” she added.

In the past, Lee has denied he improperly accepted gifts, saying he made a good faith effort to pay his own way and, in some instances, declined to eat during meals with the men seeking business with the city.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Lee, who represents the western San Fernando Valley on the City Council, blasted the commission’s decision, saying it was unfair.

“The Commission rubber-stamped a biased investigation and blatantly ignored all relevant facts, including that the FBI never charged me for backdating any checks or aiding Mitchell Englander's 2017 illegal activities,” he said.

In 2020, federal prosecutors charged Englander with accepting $15,000 from one of the businessmen and obstructing the FBI’s investigation into corruption at L.A. City Hall. Englander eventually pleaded guilty to providing false information to the FBI. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison.

Lee called the investigation into him “wasteful and political.”

He said the commission’s action was “but one step in the process of fighting these baseless charges.”

“I look forward to finally having an opportunity to have this matter adjudicated in a fair and impartial setting,” he said.

Any appeal would need to be filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court.