(LOS ANGELES) – Today, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced that her office has filed a civil enforcement action to shut down an alleged illegal, after-hours nightclub operating in downtown LA (DTLA). The 217 East Washington Boulevard property (“Property”) has been a site of violence for many years, including a fatal shooting. The club presents an ongoing threat to community safety with illegal firearms - including a ghost gun, ammunition, and other illegal land uses. Despite repeated warnings and enforcement actions, the owners and operators of the Property have failed to prevent unlawful conditions that have negatively impacted neighborhood quality of life and have drained resources from the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD).
“The Defendants have repeatedly and brazenly violated laws and jeopardized the well-being of our community. Ensuring public safety of our residents is a top priority and, with this suit, we are holding the property owners accountable and putting a stop to illegal activities that have continually disrupted this neighborhood” said Hydee Feldstein Soto, Los Angeles City Attorney.
The Property has hosted unpermitted after-hours parties, which have included illegal alcohol sales, unpermitted disc jockeys and dance floors, unlawful amplified music, and illegal sales of balloons inflated with nitrous oxide (laughing gas). Law enforcement has received ongoing complaints about loud music and large late-night gatherings taking place at the Property. Despite repeated efforts by the City Attorney’s Office and the LAPD to work with the Defendants (six property owners and one lessee), the illegal use of the Property has continued unabated.
The property owner Defendants have permitted the Property to be used illegally since at least December 2017. Before the Property was used as a nightclub, it was the site of an illegal marijuana dispensary and an illegal gambling operation. While it was a (“casita”), the LAPD recovered an unregistered firearm and gambling machines and arrested more than two dozen people.
In June 2023, a confrontation inside the nightclub escalated into gunfire, leaving one person dead and another wounded. In December 2024, LAPD officers shut down a party with approximately 120 patrons and recovered a fully loaded ghost gun, a loaded magazine, and live ammunition.
Feldstein Soto’s lawsuit, filed for violations of the CA Unfair Competition Law, which prohibits “unfair competition” including “any unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business act or practice”, seeks a permanent injunction to immediately cease all illegal operations at the Property, along with penalties for the Defendants’ persistent violations.
LASC Case #25STCV15913: The People of the State of California vs. Ehsan Yaghoubi and Jila Yaghoubi, as individuals and as trustees of the Ehsan and Jila Yaghoubi Family Trust, U/A dated January 11, 2013; Farhad Yaghoubi, as an individual; Elham Sefaradi, as an individual; Hersel Kohan aka Hersel Kohansion, as an individual; Mahnaz Gozini, as an individual; Jeffrey Hunter, as an individual.
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Hydee Feldstein Soto is the 43rd Los Angeles City Attorney, elected in November 2022 and sworn into office in December 2022. Her team of nearly 1,000 legal professionals, including 500+ attorneys, carries out legal work for the City of Los Angeles at her direction and under her supervision. She is the first female City Attorney in L.A. history.