A conspiracy video about the City of Los Angeles paying a fugitive billionaire’s hotel millions is going viral — but not every claim checks out

A video posted on the social media platform X accusing the city of Los Angeles of corruption has gone viral, with almost 250,000 unique viewers watching it in a single day. The account, WallStreetApes, claims to have uncovered a conspiracy tying Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to a Chinese billionaire and an alleged $100 million hotel contract.

According to the influencer, who visited the site himself, the LA Grand Hotel in downtown Los Angeles was used by the city to provide homeless residents with a place to weather the pandemic during the height of COVID-19 restrictions. The initiative was called Project Roomkey, and it was actually implemented statewide across California.

The program prioritized individuals with underlying health conditions and those aged 65 and older. It worked by providing temporary, non-congregate shelter in vacant hotel and motel rooms. However, the initiative had its fair share of controversies.

The problems ran deeper

Several local cities strongly opposed hosting Project Roomkey sites. The City of Laguna Hills even filed a lawsuit, declaring the program a public nuisance. Similar disputes arose in other parts of the state and eventually forced Los Angeles County to file lawsuits seeking to compel compliance in an effort to protect the program.

However, according to the viral video, the problems ran much deeper. As is often the case with contentious rehousing programs, occupancy at the LA Grand Hotel reportedly dropped significantly, but the city continued paying the full contracted price. The creator said, “The city agreed to pay the owner, a company called Shenzhen New World, $154 a night for every room in the building, meals included. Not per person, per room, whether anyone was in it or not.” He continued, “At one point, only 24% of the rooms were occupied. The city was paying over $600 a night per person actually housed.”

Furthermore, the building is owned by Chinese billionaire developer Wei Huang. Huang is now reportedly living as a fugitive, with some reports suggesting he is in Shenzhen, China. Federal authorities prosecuted him in a separate case involving bribery.

In that case, the DOJ wrote, “A downtown Los Angeles-based company was sentenced today to five years of probation and was fined $4 million – the maximum penalty under the law – for the actions of its billionaire Chinese real estate developer owner and others who provided more than $1 million in benefits – including luxury trips and a sham loan – to bribe then-Los Angeles City Councilman José Huizar to obtain city approval to build a 77-story skyscraper.”

There isn’t enough evidence to support the conclusion

The page then goes on to speculate that because Huang had previously been convicted of crimes and had donated to Democratic politicians, the hotel arrangement was part of a sophisticated scheme to launder taxpayer money. It insinuates that once Huang earned the money “legally,” those involved could later share the proceeds.

WOW 🚨 Los Angeles Democrats paid $100 million dollars to a private company owned by a Chinese billionaire for a homeless hotel

Democrats also agreed to pay for ALL rooms regardless if anyone was housed

The deal was so shady the Chinese billionaire fled to China when the FBI… pic.twitter.com/TI8nMdi7U9

— Wall Street Apes (@WallStreetApes) July 23, 2026

As tempting as that story might sound, that’s the only leap in the entire video that does not hold up because there is no evidence to support it. Based on the publicly available information, it appears to be a poorly executed government program rather than proof of a money-laundering conspiracy. The people making the allegations believe the failures were intentional, but belief alone is not evidence. When making allegations of criminal conduct, the burden of proof ultimately rests with the person making the claim.