By Clara Harter | Daily Breeze
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced a lawsuit on Wednesday against a “massive” illegal short-term rental ring, allegedly run by an Airbnb influencer who offered master classes in his rental schemes.
According to the complaint, the rental group reaped more than $4 million in profits by listing dozens of illegal vacation rentals on platforms including Airbnb, VRBO and Booking.com in violation of the city’s Short-Term Rental Ordinance.
Now the defendants are facing potential damages of $15 million or more.
“As renters battle a severe housing shortage and sky-high rent, these defendants exacerbated our housing crisis by leasing at least 30 apartments and houses from their owners and illegally renting them out as short-term rentals, city attorney Feldstein Soto said in a statement on the suit. “Our housing laws were enacted for a reason and I’ll always work to enforce them and hold violators accountable.”
According to the compliant, entrepreneur Vladyslav Yurov ran the operation using a scheme called “short-term rental arbitrage.” Yurov and his partners would rent properties from the owners on a long-term basis and then turn around and illegally list them on vacation rental sites. The scheme included several rent-stabilized units in expensive neighborhoods such as Venice and that were illegally turned into overnight rentals.
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