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Reddy faces fresh charges

J M Shenoy

The man who faces about 70 years in prison if found guilty of charges ranging from importing women for sex to spiriting people into America under false visas, now facing an investigation into the business that has made him a multi-millionaire.

Lakireddy Bali Reddy, 62, whose property is valued at $ 60 million or more, and who is free on a $ 10 million bail, is being accused by Berkeley City and many of his tenants of ignoring safety standards in his buildings.

Reddy, with 1000 flats is the richest landlord in Berkeley. The alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley, also owns two restaurants, one in Berkeley, and the other in Silicon Valley.

This week Berkeley City Council voted unanimously to direct city staff to investigate a spate of complaints against Reddy.

While Reddy's lawyer says the complainants want to curry favor with the officials and make sure their own immigration errors are not made an issue, there are many who believe that news carried about Reddy in the newspapers is true.

Officials have had many complaints against Reddy and have been investigating him for years. But it was the death of a 17-year-old girl by carbon monoxide poisoning in one of his apartments in late November that hastened the pace of investigation.

Among the charges Reddy faces is bringing into America the girl who died a few months after her arrival. He reportedly had sex with her.

Investigators Dona Spring and Kriss Worthington have said in their report that the tenants of the building had complained of problems ranging from the lack of a building manager to lax security. Members of the rent board staff said they have received complaints over the years that Reddy Realty did not return rental deposits. He also evicted tenants, saying the owners would move into their apartments, Spring and Worthington said.

Reddy could face fines exceeding $ 100,000 if the charges are upheld.

"I think he's ranked as one of the worst landlords in the city in terms of problems and complaints," Dona Spring, member of the City Council, told reporters yesterday.

"Now I'm quite worried about what could happen to these employees who were (allegedly) exploited."

Berkeley police Capt Bobby Miller had said last week that investigators believe that many people that Reddy had brought over from India had to work off their debt to Reddy at substandard wages. Some of them worked for $ 4 for an hour, insiders say.

Though Reddy faced over 50 lawsuits, he has been able to win most of them; he has paid minor fine, say $ 5,000, for his housing violations.

"We have a long history of problems with his properties," City Attorney Manuela Albuquerque told reporters recently.

Complete coverage of the Reddy scandal

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