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Landlord To Pay $10M To Ex-Tenants In Settlement

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Mar 4, 2008 5:40 pm US/Pacific

Landlord To Pay $10M To Ex-Tenants In Settlement

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― A landlord will have to pay $10 million to former tenants and the city for a scheme to drive low-income residents out of more than 800 rent-controlled apartments.

According to Tuesday's settlement, Darren Stern will pay $1 million in civil penalties and an estimated $9 million in restitution to former tenants in several areas across greater Los Angeles. Stern will pay $105,000 to reimburse the city's investigative costs. Stern is barred from purchasing rental properties in Los Angeles for four years and six months.

Stern, also known as Henry Shalom, bought high occupancy rent-controlled buildings and then forced tenants out through squalid living conditions and intimidation, evicted them, then raised rents and sold the buildings for an inflated profit, City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo said.

Stern, owner of Landmark Equity Management, was convicted last May after pleading no contest to nearly three dozen code violations. He served 30 days of a 150-day sentence.

Messages left for Stern's attorney, Steven Toscher, were not immediately returned.

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