Three looming stalagmites quietly grew from many years’ worth of deposits left behind by leaky budgets and diverted material resources, and no one seemed to notice or care…until the people of the City of Los Angeles started moving in, decorating, and BASE jumping like they owned the place.
Untouchable even to its own investors and contractors due to American corruption, and located appropriately between Skid Row’s concentrated homelessness and the Grammy Museum, the now-infamous Oceanwide Plaza stands unfinished at 55 floors.
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Oceanwide Plaza
Roughly 75% complete, but abandoned since 2019, Oceanwide Plaza is two vacant, unfinished condominiums and a 55-level husk of a Hyatt hotel with a would-be retail mall situated within South Park’s L.A. Live at 1101 S. Flower St.
Construction on the project began in 2015 (Click here for a paywalled article about an Oceanwide presentation that took place at a 2016 DTLA real estate convention. It didn’t age well.) but Oceanwide’s three tall, empty shells have most recently drawn international attention thanks to their gravity-defying graffiti makeover. It would appear that members of the public, perturbed by the unfinished state of the plaza, took it upon themselves to paint the unpainted towers.
The uncommissioned artworks lent DTLA a fitting apocalyptic aesthetic on Groundhog’s Day, just in time for the Grammys. Original Oceanwide Plaza renderings contain an installation of ribbon-like LED screens glowing garish neon advertising content toward “the Crypt” (Crypto.com arena, formerly Staples Centet). It’s kind of like Santa Monica’s Promenade mixed with Hollywood/Highland and New York City’s Time Square.
It’s hard to imagine 700-foot LED panels–which were supposed to be thee largest on the West coast–looking any more attractive than the new blocky, fluorescent “bombs”, which came at a much lower price and are probably much less hazardous to migrating birds, bees, etc. I don’t think removing the paint should be a priority when there are far more pressing issues in Los Angeles right now, like evictions, the weather, and traffic deaths.
The 688-unit, mixed-use project was previously a parking lot, and before that, it was affordable housing which got condemned and cleared using eminent domain in the late 1980s, displacing 600 families. Oceanwide’s three towers, like the nearby J.W. Marriott/Ritz Carlton, were funded by dozens of upper-, upper-middle-, and middle-class Chinese citizens through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s EB-5 program.
But something happened the funds, construction ground to a halt and the loan defaulted.
The three Americans responsible have scammed investors before, and are still scamming today.
Allow me to introduce you to Edward, Jean and Mickey.
Hustling “Golden Visas”
EB-5 grants citizenship to the families of immigrants who invest a minimum of $500,000 (now $800k) into a new job-creating, for-profit commercial enterprise. Hopeful investors can even use funds loaned to them and/or combine or “pool” their money with others’. Some people sell their only home in order to participate, with the hopes of moving their families into the USA.
“Alien entrepreneurs” make their investments through “regional centers” that act as middlemen between the project and the investors. Regional centers are supposed to pay into the project so the developer offset a portion of their high-interest bank loan. The developer is supposed to pay contractors and make loan repayments.
Fraud occurs when the funds can be diverted elsewhere without detection, which is what three Chinese-Americans: Edward and Jean Chen of Arcadia, and “Mickey” Cheng of Thousand Oaks were apparently able to pull off. Edward and Jean Chen were supposed to be under federal surveillance because they did the same scam just a few years ago. In fact, the Chens were banned from the whole EB-5 program in 2018.
Dozens of Chinese immigrant families who invested in Oceanwide Plaza are the victims of three Chinese-American scammers, , Jianqiao “Jean” of Arcadia “Mickey” of Thousand Oaks.
In the scam, basically the Investment Company, Manager and Regional Center are Edward, Jean and Mickey, and the investments don’t make it to the developer’s project. Instead, they buy more houses for the Chens. Flowchart
EB-5
EB-5 investments must directly or indirectly create (or preserve, in some cases) at least 10 “permanent” jobs. A construction job may qualify if it lasts two years.
At the cost of up to 50,000 employment visas annually, over 80% of which are granted to Chinese people seeking legal American citizenship, the EB-5 program brings in at least $8B/year in the form of foreign investments in new developments, leading to half-a-million permanent jobs. EB-5 has been used to finance infrastructure projects like highways in other states, but it can’t fund a nonprofit so housing produced with foreign investment tends to be market rate or luxury condos or hotels.
An example of a successful Los Angeles project produced with EB-5 is the expansion of Molina Healthcare in Long Beach, which was sponsored by the Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation’s EB-5 regional center. LAEDC’s partner CanAm Enterprises claims to have successfully financed 60 EB-5 projects financed by 2,600 immigrant families, illustrating EB-5’a mutually beneficial potential.
EB-5 investments are not guaranteed, but also important to funders is the opportunity to secure legal citizenship, which also is not a guarantee.
It is believed that international lenders may be willing to lend with lower interest rates (IE 1% instead of 10%) because they value the citizenship opportunity, but that leaves them vulnerable to being defrauded out of their money and visa completely.
EB-5 scams are quite common, which is why CA Senator Diane Feinstein called to allow the program to expire in 2017, but it was renewed by President Trump and again by President Biden. In 2022, some important steps were taken to repair the flawed EB-5 program, but fees were increased that get passed onto the investors. One of the important EB-5 changes made in 2022 allows investors who got ripped off to still apply for visas. This is good because then it’s not like the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is harboring and protecting scammers while rejecting good-faith foreign investors who were victims of fraud.
In 2017, President Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor, Jared Kushner’s sister, Nicole Meyer, financed New Jersey developments by presenting EB-5 opportunities herself at events in Bejing. One presentation hosted by Chinese company Qiaowai was held in a Ritz-Carlton ballroom on May 7th, 2017.
But Nicole Meyer’s presentation is not the only government endorsement of EB-5. There are several layers of the program that seem licensed, guaranteed or legitimate but while they are “licensed” and “official government business”, they are not guaranteed or legitimate.
Don’t blame China.
While Chinese investors are aware that investing is a risk, I can’t fault or blame them for thinking they were making a good investment. Unfortunately “blame China” is a refrain we are hearing repeated in the media. First of all, we can’t be serious in faulting another country for a domestic problem, even if it’s convenient.
Can you really blame Chinese investors who were told by a relative of our President that their investments would return profits and visas? I think that’s probably as good of a testimonial as there is. Most of the money to build Oceanwide came from a bank loan, but a portion was invested through a regional center. The investment company, Downtown L.A. Investments is where Arcadia residents Edward and Jean Chen and “Mickey” from Thousand Oaks came in and diverted the invested EB-5 funds to enrich themselves.
The Chens did this before by soliciting investments for an 80-unit Koreatown condo “Golden Galaxy”, which was a legitimate development, although 91% of the solicited investments were spent on residential real estate by Jianqiao “Jean” and Edward, and “Home Paradise”, an interior design company which was fraudulently presented to the government and investors as being five times larger and offering many more jobs than it did (it only had a receptionist).
Despite USCIS’ freezing their assets, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has streamlined the process of scamming foreign investors and protecting American scams by continuing to list the Chens’ Home Paradise on their official government DHS website.
To this day, DHS still endorses the scammers it prosecuted and banned back in 2017-18 by promoting Home Paradise as a licensed regional EB-5 center.
Edward “Eddie” and his wife”Jean” Jianqiao are a Chinese American couple known to live in Arcadia, which is in L.A. County. They have registered a LOT of corporate entities, with many registered at two addresses: one in Commerce and another in South El Monte. Edward may have attended USC and Arcadia High School (based on a Facebook profile with an avatar of mountains).
They are central to the fall of the doomed Oceanwide Plaza husks, which is why I propose referring to the three towers as Edward, Jean/Jianqiao and their partner “Mickey” Cheng.
Incorporations
Oceanwides
California’s Secretary of State lists 38 entities called “Oceanwide”, with 11 of them including the word “Plaza”. Seven of those are just “Name Reservations”. Of the four remaining, only one is in California. The other three are in Delaware with the agent “Registered Agents Inc”. The California one is for the Park Hayat Los Angeles Residences at Oceanwide Plaza LLC.
Edward Chen
Oceanwide’s EB-5 lending was managed by L.A. Downtown Investment, LP. LADI was run by American Edward Chen starting on July 28, 2014 at the address of Oceanwide Plaza (1101 S. Flower St.)
LA Downtown Investment LP, Homewin Management, LLC & Loyal Colour Company Limited
Homewin Management, LLC is listed as a general partner to L.A. Downtown Investment LP on LADI’s original filing by Edward Chen. Homewin was formed by Edward Chen on July 23, 2014, five days before LADI was formed. On May 12, 2021, Kwok Yue “Mickey” Cheng was made Homewin’s agent.
YICHEN ZHOU, ET AL. VS HOMEWIN MANAGEMENT, LLC, A CALIFORNIA LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY, ET AL.On 02/03/2021 YICHEN ZHOU, filed a Contract - Business Governance court case against HOMEWIN MANAGEMENT, LLC, A…unicourt.com
Kwok Yue “Mikey” Cheng
LADI is named as a defendant along with Homewin Management, LLC, Kwok Yue “Mickey” Chen and Loyal Colour Company, Ltd. in the 109-page complaint about Oceanwide Plaza dated February 3rd, 2021.
Defendants:
* Oceanwide Plaza LLC
* Kwok Yue “Mickey” Cheng
* LA Downtown Investment LP
* Homewin Management LLC • 7000 E. Slauson Ave. in Commerce • Agent: Kwok Yue “Mickey” Chen (as of 5/12/21), Edward Chen (7/23/14 — 5/12/21)
* Loyal Colour Company Limited • 34485 Valley Oaks Loop in Union City, also British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong • Agent: Kwok Yue “Mickey” Chen (as of 10/22/21 formation)
Home Paradise
Edward Chen’s previous lending group, Home Paradise Investment Center, LLC, managed to scam at least 45 people in China out of their cash in 2017. A “Home Paradise Investment Center, LLC” was filed by Edward Chen in 2010, and may still be scamming people.
Jianqiao “Jean”
The Home Paradise scam was unusual in that somehow nearly all (over 90%) of the immigrants’ invested funds were spent before the fraud was detected. In the 2017 complaint, the United States Securitites and Exchange Commission said of Chen and his wife, “Jean”/Jianqiao:
…there are millions of dollars of investor funds still under the Chens’ control. Given their past conduct, there is every reason to believe that the Chens, unless immediately enjoined, will continue to misuse and misappropriate investor funds.
Despite those words, the Department of Homeland Securitycontinues to list Home Paradise Regional Center, LLC (ID1031910071) on their government website, which is also translated into Chinese, as an approved regional EB-5 center:
Home Paradises*
A search thorough the California Secretary of State’s website shows five “Home Paradise” entities sharing two addresses (Commerce, which is also Homewin’s address, and El Monte), all with Edward and Jianqiao Chen as agents:
* Home Paradise Investment Center LLC • 10932 Klingerman St. Unit C in South El Monte • Agent: Lide Chen (as of 11/21/23), Jianqiao Chen (4/29/22), Edward Chen (6/8/10)
* Home Paradise Investment Center LP • 7000 E. Slauson Ave. in Commerce • Agent: Edward Chen (as of formation on 9/21/11)
* Home Paradise Realty Group, Inc. • El Monte • Agent: Jeff Chen • Officer & Director: Edward Chen (as of 3/9/23)
* INACTIVE Home Paradise, Inc. • Commerce • Agent: Jianqiao Chen (12/24/07 — 2/3/15 termination)
* Home Paradises LLC • El Monte • Agent: Wanxin Tong (as of 8/16/23), Lide Chen (12/13/21), Jianqiao Chen (5/26/10)
Home Paradises, LLC was formed by Jianqiao Chen on May 26th, 2010, just two weeks before Edward Chen formed Home Paradise Investment Center, LLC on June 8th, 2010. They were both formed at the same Monterey Park address:
The first “Home Paradise”, Home Paradise, Inc., existed under other names prior to 2007 and seems to have terminated in 2015 (probably because of the events that led to the 2017 complaint). But that leaves four other active “Home Paradises” controlled by Edward and Jianqiao Chen, and which are practically endorsed by Homeland Security, since Home Paradise Regional Center has not been removed from their list of licensed EB-5 centers, that could potentially be scamming more people and erecting more doomed husks.
Part 2 coming soon…
Ruth is an unhoused woman who has been living in public in the City of L.A. for over five years continuously. She is known for taking up space for homeless people in pubic meetings and on social media. Listen to her correspondences on SMOGLAND Radio and catch up on Twitter @rooflesser
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