washingtonpost OP t1_iwbi39q wrote on November 14, 2022 at 12:24 PM

Reply to D.C.’s bitcoin king: yachts, penthouses, a python — and tax dodging? by washingtonpost

From reporter Justin Jouvenal: Michael Saylor lived large while allegedly paying no D.C. income tax. Here’s how whistleblowers unraveled what could be one of the largest tax scams in city history.

Michael Saylor amassed a multibillion dollar fortune, splurging to combine three Georgetown penthouses into a palatial 7,000 square-foot residence, snapping up an 154-foot yacht dubbed “Mr. Terrible” and throwing lavish soirees including one where he was draped with an albino python.

All the while, the tech titan did not pay income tax in the District for years and bragged about it to friends, anonymous whistleblowers allege. They said he told people they were “fools” if they did not buy a home in Florida like he did and claim to live there. The state has no income tax.

The whistleblowers’ allegations come in a lawsuit filed in D.C. Superior Court that provides a stunning inside look at the lavish lifestyle of what it calls “arguably the wealthiest person in the District” and an allegedly brazen scheme to defraud the city of tens of millions. It is one of the largest income tax cases in D.C. history.

The whistleblowers, whose legal efforts were joined by District officials in August, stand to earn a staggering payday — possibly $25 million or more — and to return as much as $150 million to city coffers if their case against the Saylor is successful.

Saylor, who denies any wrongdoing, is the first target of a little-noticed revamp of a District law, which now allows citizens to file complaints against alleged tax cheats on behalf of the city and collect a bounty if they win their case.

Such statutes are quickly becoming a powerful tool to hold tax scofflaws among the ultrawealthy and powerful corporations accountable in an era of rising concern about wealth disparity and tax dodges among the wealthiest 1 percent. A similar law in New York has recovered a whopping $467 million in back taxes, according to an analysis noted by D.C. officials. Other states are taking notice.

Saylor, who contends in court papers he has never been a D.C. resident, said in a statement he lives in Florida and it is “the center of my personal and family life.” He is seeking to have the case dismissed.

washingtonpost OP t1_iuhxyuv wrote on October 31, 2022 at 1:55 PM

Reply to comment by romulusjsp in D.C.’s great rat migration — and how they survived during the pandemic by washingtonpost

there is also a rat academy lol

washingtonpost OP t1_iuevdyd wrote on October 30, 2022 at 8:13 PM

Reply to D.C.’s great rat migration — and how they survived during the pandemic by washingtonpost

From reporters Dana Hedgpeth, Tara McCarty and Joe Fox:

They burrow in gardens and shelter in nests of shredded cardboard under stoops. In alleyways, they quench their thirst at leaky faucets and snack on liquids oozing from bags.

Rats are a fixture of urban life, but early in the pandemic, their populations in urban cores shrank as restaurants, parks and offices shut down — and their access to trash did too. But many adapted, desperate to survive. They ate off the bottom of restaurant doors in search of food, alpha male rats ate weaker ones, and a large number, to residents’ frustration, migrated.

“They’ve gotten into places where there were no rats, and now people are calling and saying, ‘I’ve lived here for 20 years and never seen a rat until now,’ ” said Gerard Brown, who oversees rodent control at D.C. Health.

Now with offices and restaurants opening up again, the rats are back as well.

“There’s a rat resurgence,” said Bobby Corrigan, among the world’s best-known rodentologists. “They may be bouncing back with larger families in both the urban core and in the more residential neighborhoods of D.C.”

Known formally as Rattus norvegicus, the brown rat is the species found in D.C.’s streets and many major cities. Most people agree that rats are gross and that they can cause health problems and property damage. They chew through wires in the walls of homes and cars. They can bite pets and humans, and if a person eats food contaminated by rat saliva, urine or feces, they can fall sick with diseases.

It’s tough to accurately count rat populations because the four-legged fiends are nocturnal and live among the shadows of alleys and sewers.

Orkin, one of the biggest pest control management companies in the country, ranked D.C. fourth in its annual ranking of the top 50 “rattiest cities,” placing it behind Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

In D.C., reports of rat sightings are up: The city service hotline has fielded more than 13,300 complaints in the 2022 fiscal year — compared with roughly 6,200 in the 2018 fiscal year, according to the city’s health department. Despite this increase, health officials said they haven’t seen a surge in rat-related illnesses.

More complaints mean more work for rat catchers: Before the pandemic, Scott Mullaney and his wife, Angie Mullaney — who run a business that uses Patterdale terriers to catch and kill rats — used to average about 25 rats at a job site. Now as people return to life and business as usual, their dogs catch closer to 60 per site some nights.

“They’re coming back with a vengeance,” Corrigan said.

Read more here. We put a whole video game in this too, wild right: https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/interactive/2022/dc-rats-thrive-pandemic/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_medium=social&utm_source=reddit.com

washingtonpost OP t1_isxwifh wrote on October 19, 2022 at 2:40 PM

Reply to 1 in 4 public housing units sit vacant during D.C. affordability crisis by washingtonpost

From reporter Steve Thompson:

The apartment is a time capsule. In the fridge, still plugged in and running, sits a mostly empty package of Oscar Mayer deli meat dated May 2019. The freezer holds a 16-pound turkey — best if used by June 29, 2019.

On the living room floor lies a composition book filled by a girl who lived in Unit #32. Her name means princess, the girl wrote, and her favorite person is her baby sister.

In the three years since, D.C. Housing Authority officials moved no one else in, as more than 20,000 people languished on a frozen waiting list for public housing.

It’s among the more than one in four of D.C.’s roughly 8,000 public housing units that sit vacant, at an average length of about two years, agency records reveal. Nationwide, public housing occupancy rates average 95 percent. DCHA’s is the lowest it has ever experienced, even as the District’s long-running affordable housing crisis intensifies and more people find themselves priced out of decent homes.

The occupancy decline underscores entrenched troubles at the agency tasked with housing some of the District’s poorest residents. The city’s largest landlord, the authority serves about 30,000 households through housing vouchers and mixed-finance and traditional public housing properties.

The vacancies cost more than $10 million annually in forgone rent and federal subsidies, according to a federal housing department estimate, and they drag down communities the authority is supposed to serve. Their boarded-up doors and windows are often pried loose and attract crime, and residents say the trash left behind fuels roach and rodent infestations.

Brenda Donald, who has been director for about 16 months, has blamed the worsening vacancies on her predecessor while pledging to make it her top priority. “I’ve run big, complex systems, and they don’t get broken overnight, and you can’t fix them overnight,” Donald said in a recent interview.

But her own goals have not been met. In March, as the occupancy rate stood at 79 percent, Donald pledged to raise it 10 percentage points by the end of September. Instead, it has fallen below 74 percent.

That’s the lowest of any large housing authority in the country, according to a recent report from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development that slammed DCHA for poor management. The report demands the agency significantly improve occupancy and other issues or risk defaulting on its agreement with the federal government.

Among its findings: dangerous conditions, including lead-paint hazards; out-of-code plumbing; water damage and mold; emergency work orders going unaddressed at night due to high crime; and prospective tenants declining units because they fear for their safety.

In a building near Unit #32, intruders ripped away the plywood sealing a vacant unit and kicked in the door. There’s a small bed inside, and clothes are strewn about. More than a dozen used condoms have been tossed into the once-white bathtub.

“I have reported this door being open, but they’re not doing anything about it,” said Nakia Blackmone, whose apartment is steps away from the vacant unit. “People are just coming in and out, and in and out, and I don’t feel safe where I live.”