UPDATED, April 2, 3:10 p.m.: Upper East Side Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney earned up to $95,000 from a Virginia rental company accused of being quick to evict tenants who fall behind on their rent.
Maloney, who has a net worth estimated to be $28.5 million in 2016 and is one of the richest members of Congress, owns a piece of Linkhorn Place Associates, which owns and operates two rental complexes in Virginia Beach, the Daily News reported.
Maloney inherited a 4.8 percent stake in the company in 2013, and earned between $30,000 and $95,000 in income from the company between 2013 and 2016, her financial disclosure forms show.
Since 2013, Linkhorn has evicted two dozen tenants, and residents say the company moves swiftly to evict, even though there are problems with the apartments.
“It was like a slumlord,” said former renter Justin Lacasse, who was evicted from his two-bedroom apartment a year ago after he lost his job and fell behind on rent.
A spokesperson for Maloney’s campaign – she’s facing a challenge in the Democratic primary in June from hotel executive Suraj Patel – said the congresswoman and her three siblings inherited their stake in Linkhorn, but none of them have control over it.
“Throughout her career on the City Council and continuing into the Congress, Carolyn Maloney has been an effective proponent for, and defender of, affordable housing, rent regulation and tenant protection,” the spokesperson said.
“She, along with her siblings, inherited a nonmanagerial passive minor interest in the Linkhorn apartments after the death of her father and has no role in managing the property. It is wrong to suggest otherwise.”
Maloney also owns a stake in the six-unit Virginia Beach rental property Athena II, which was worth between $1 million and $5 million in 2016, according to her financial disclosures. She earned between $165,000 and $1.15 million from Athena between 2014 and 2016. [NYDN] – Rich Bockmann
Correction: Due to errors in the source article, the amounts Rep. Carolyn Maloney earned from properties in Virginia Beach were misstated. She earned between $30,000 and $95,000 from Linkhorn Place Associates between 2013 and 2016, not each year during that span. Maloney earned between $165,000 and $1.15 million between 2014 and 2016 – not each year – from the Athena II property.