L.A. building inspector gets 18-month sentence for taking bribes

A building inspector snared in an undercover FBI investigation into bribe-taking at Los Angeles City Hall was sentenced Monday to a year and a half in prison.

Hugo Gonzalez, 49, was caught on tape accepting $9,000 in bribes for permits involving a handful of construction sites in South L.A. The L.A. resident was recorded demanding payment from both an undercover FBI agent and a confidential informant.

At one point, Gonzalez also said he wanted to kill the employee of a real estate developer with which he was dealing –- and then flee to Mexico, according to an affidavit filed by investigators. “They would never find me,” he said in the secretly recorded conversation.

During another recording, Gonzalez said via phone that he was in Colima, Mexico, and needed a bribe to be deposited directly into his Wells Fargo account. In a third, Gonzalez said he would need to pay off another inspector before he could receive permission to accept a bribe from someone with a project outside his inspection territory, the affidavit said.