D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb announced a sweeping civil lawsuit this week against Ali “Sam” Razjooyan, his brother Eimon “Ray” Razjooyan, and their mother, Houri Razjooyan, accusing them of operating a vast illegal real estate empire.

Schwalb says the lawsuit is the first time a landlord in D.C. has been accused of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, which is typically used to take down mob bosses and organized crime. The complaint also alleges violations of  the Consumer Protection Procedures Act and the District’s False Claims Act. The AG says that under RICO and the FCA, “the Razjooyans can be held liable for three times the amount they owe for their fraud (known as treble damages) as well as civil penalties payable to the District.”

According to the complaint, the Razjooyan family has controlled more than 70 rent-controlled buildings totaling more than 600 units, primarily in Wards 7 and 8. The family, who own neighboring multimillion-dollar townhouses in Potomac, allegedly defrauded lenders and the city while subjecting low-income tenants to dangerous and deplorable housing conditions.

The lawsuit claims the Razjooyans used fake documents and false renovation promises to secure loans on rent-stabilized buildings, telling lenders they would upgrade units and receive higher rents by leasing to voucher holders. 

Instead, the complaint alleges, they diverted loan proceeds to enrich themselves, pay off earlier debts, and acquire additional properties—a “Ponzi-like scheme” designed to sustain and expand their operation, according to the lawsuit.

The Razjooyans’ various properties deteriorated into uninhabitable conditions, racking up 4,000 housing code violations and leaving low-income, mostly Black tenants living with rodent and insect infestations, gas leaks, electrical hazards, mold, flooding, and piles of trash. Even as conditions worsened, the complaint alleges, the Razjooyans falsely certified the units as safe and habitable, defrauding District agencies out of more than $16 million in housing subsidy payments.

The lawsuit contains a detailed chart of properties, loans, and LLCs tied to the Razjooyans, and its allegations of RICO violations allow the attorney general to pursue the family’s entire ongoing enterprise, rather than targeting individual buildings.

The AG’s case confirms much of City Paper’s previous reporting, including accounts from tenants in multiple Razjooyan-managed buildings who endured months without heat, repeated flooding, inhumane conditions, and threats of eviction. 

Tenants also said promised repairs and upgrades never materialized, and some were tricked out of their rights under D.C.’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act, known as TOPA. City Paper’s investigation revealed patterns of inflated appraisals, doctored loan documents, and “flip fees” that enriched Sam Razjooyan and his associates while leaving tenants displaced or living in unsafe conditions.

According to the attorney general, the alleged neglect carried broader consequences: As dozens of units fell into disrepair and tenants fled what the complaint describes as unlivable conditions, the city’s already strained affordable housing supply shrank further, deepening the District’s housing crisis.

Sam Razjooyan did not respond to a request for comment.

“Today, we’re dismantling the Razjooyan slumlord empire,” Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a press release. “D.C. has a serious housing affordability problem, and slumlords like the Razjooyans make things worse by decreasing the available housing supply and forcing tenants to live in horrific conditions. Their business model, by design, preys on tenants for profit—cheating banks, private lenders, and the DC government along the way. Instead of addressing each building individually, we’re attacking the very foundation of their illegal operation.”

The lawsuit seeks to ban the Razjooyans from owning or operating rental properties in the District, recover restitution for tenants, and impose financial penalties. The AG’s office is also asking the court to place the properties under receivership to ensure critical repairs and compliance with housing standards. 

But ownership at least one of the buildings in the Razjooyan’s enterprise has been taken back by the lender, who is represented by yet another notorious slumlord. 

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According to the complaint, Sam Razjooyan’s reputation among lenders and tenant advocates has deteriorated amid media scrutiny and multiple court cases, making it difficult for him to secure financing directly. 

Razjooyan concealed his involvement in building transactions by using straw buyers to acquire properties and obtain loans, the AG alleges. Those “foot soldiers” allegedly helped disguise transactions among each other, which were falsely represented as arm’s-length sales, in order to keep properties within the enterprise’s control and inflate property values to generate additional financing. 

The alleged straw purchasers identified in the complaint include Elenora Hill and Wilbur McReynolds, who recently admitted liability for violations of the District’s Tenant Receivership Act and Consumer Protection Procedures Act over their ownership of the property at 4559 Benning Rd. SE, one of the properties listed in the RICO complaint. 

The building, which had a tax assessed value of almost $3.3 million in 2025, was purchased from Razjooyan for $11.8 million in July of that year. 

By August, inspectors found severe fire hazards at the property, including inoperable fire alarms, cut power lines to alarm systems, and an active gas leak, along with unsafe gas lines throughout the building. Tenants—including families with young children—had to be evacuated to emergency hotel housing, according to court records. Two days later, the District filed an emergency petition seeking to appoint a receiver. 

During a hearing to determine whether to appoint a receiver for the property last September, McReynolds repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination when questioned about the property’s finances, stating: “Upon the advice of counsel, I assert my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution and refuse to answer that question.” 

The court ultimately approved the receivership. 

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The property at 1850 Kendall St. NE, which is also part of the RICO case, exemplifies a broader pattern of deceit, neglect, and inhumane conditions at Razjooyan-affiliated properties.

In July 2025, lender Genesis Capital, LLC filed a lawsuit against Razjooyan and his LLC (1850-1854 Kendall St. NE, LLC) for $7.99 million. The California-based lender alleged that Razjooyan’s LLC defaulted on a $5.9 million loan. According to the complaint, Razjooyan’s LLC amassed $57,116 in unpaid property taxes, $74,238 in delinquent water and sewer charges, and $63,252 in fines from the DC Department of Buildings.

Odell Blocker III, a former investor in the LLC, said he lost a significant amount of money in the deal. In a phone call with City Paper last year, Blocker explained that he connected with Razjooyan through an online investment group website, describing it as “Craigslist for investments.”

According to Blocker, the foreclosed property was purchased at a trustee’s sale, and the final price was $100,000 to $200,000 above what LLC members had initially agreed to pay. Razjooyan allegedly attributed the increase to additional costs incurred under TOPA. Properties sold in foreclosure are exempt from TOPA, according to Joel Cohn, legislative director with the Office of the Tenant Advocate. 

Blocker said he exited the LLC in 2023 or 2024, adding, “when guys play these kinds of games, it’s usually not a good use of time. It’s best to get away from people who don’t do good business and stay away.”

Since Razjooyan’s LLC purchased the Kendall Street NE buildings in March 2021, they have been cited by District inspectors with 220 housing code violations and assessed almost $174,000 in fines. 

The potential safety issues in the building were evident as early as August 2021. Inspectors cited the owner for installing electrical wiring and new gas and plumbing lines without permits and for ignoring multiple stop-work orders, according to Office of Administrative Hearings records.

At that time, the director of DCRA (an agency that since has been split into two, separate agencies) warned Razjooyan in a letter that “remediation performed poorly and without compliance with building codes, including the use of unlicensed contractors, endangers future residents of these properties as well as the general public.”

Richard Balles, who the complaint identifies as an alleged straw buyer, is listed on several fire safety citations between October 2024 and 2025, including a February 2025 citation stating that the structure “is unsafe or dangerous to the life, health, property or safety of the public or the occupants of the structure because it contains unsafe equipment,” and requiring that the owner to “repair all damage from the fire and the associated firefighting efforts.”

Balles tells City Paper he is “infuriated” to be named alongside Razjooyan in the AG’s lawsuit.  

“It’s so sad, it’s wrong. We did nothing wrong,” Balles says. “We lost so much money because of Sam, and we are accused of helping him. I don’t understand where the AG can say these things with no proof whatsoever.”

Between March 2024 and April 2025, Razjooyan received more than $900,000 in government subsidy payments through the Greater Washington Urban League for the Kendall Street NE property, according to court records.

In March 2025, a fire broke out in the building. Bystanders took photos of firefighters extinguishing the flames and of tenants who could be displaced, including an elderly woman.

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Razjooyan’s alleged straw buyers purchased Minnesota Commons, a 83-unit complex in Southeast, in April 2024, after receiving an inflated loan that included payment of a $4 million “flip fee” to another Razjooyan associate—an unusually high amount for the type of fee.

“I hope that they can finally win a case against him because otherwise all of this will be for nothing,” Minnesota Commons tenant association president Ernest Wilkerson says. Referring to Razjooyan, he adds: “He walks away with a lot of money and feeling invincible, and he will do it again.”

Wilkerson says the building was well-maintained when he first moved in. But when Razjooyan purchased it, Wilkerson says, “things went downhill fast. Maintenance stopped, pest control treatments stopped, and trash accumulated everywhere. 

“We had multiple floods and burst pipes that collapsed people’s ceilings,” he says. “Our heat kept going out and rodents ran rampant. Our landlord started doing all kinds of construction and took windows off of vacant apartments, leaving them completely open to the elements, and people came in and stole the copper pipes, causing even more problems for us. My neighbors and I are grateful that the Office of the Attorney General is filing this lawsuit to put a stop to all of this.”

But as Wilkerson grapples with the experience with Razjooyan, he is apprehensive about the future of Minnesota Commons, which is now owned by lender Red Oak. 

Wilkerson says tenants have been given a new contact person at Red Oak: Carter Nowell. 

Nowell is the former owner of Sanford Capital, another notorious slumlord, who was forced to exit the D.C. housing market for seven years under a 2018 consent agreement with the D.C. attorney general’s office. 

In an email to Wilkerson, Nowell introduced himself as “an advisor and local owner’s representative for Red Oak.”