Slumlord May Have Fled Town to Avoid Jail

An arrest warrant was issued Thursday for slumlord Vijaynand Sharma, whose escalating legal problems may have caused him to flee rather than risk spending time in County Jail.

Sharma, 40, called Los Angeles’ “worst slumlord” by City Atty. James K. Hahn, was to appear before Municipal Judge Veronica Simmons-McBeth for sentencing on two counts of probation violation.

When he failed to show up and his lawyer, John H. Heine, said he had not heard from him in nearly a week, Simmons-McBeth ordered Sharma arrested and set bail at $500,000.

“It is my personal belief that he is in Los Angeles County . . . although I have not been in communication with him and I’m not happy about that,” Heine told reporters. He said Sharma’s children, former wife and other relatives live in the area, giving the apartment owner strong reason to remain in Los Angeles.

But Deputy City Atty. Abraham Khan, who is prosecuting the case, said that issuing a warrant now for Sharma, a citizen of Fiji, may be acting too late.

“If he’s left (Los Angeles), he’s left already,” Khan said, noting that Sharma also owns property in other states. “It doesn’t surprise me that Mr. Sharma, in light of the sentence he’s facing, (would) sell off his property and get out of town.”

He added that in the last few months, as his legal problems increased, Sharma had divested several of his holdings in Los Angeles. By mid-December, Khan said, Sharma had sold 10 of 18 apartments or residential hotels and officials were continuing to check ownership records.

“He has been moving property like McDonald’s moves hamburgers,” Khan said.

Sharma reportedly took in about $90,000 a month from rents on run-down units where rats and vermin abounded and broken windows, plumbing, electrical wiring and fire safety equipment were left unrepaired.

He also has a history of citations, fines and convictions for operating buildings under slum conditions.

In 1986 he was fined and placed on probation for one year after pleading guilty to failing to provide water to tenants at two Los Angeles apartment buildings.

Last year he was fined $17,500 and placed on three years’ probation after pleading guilty to 20 health code violations in buildings he owned in Inglewood.

In November, Los Angeles officials found 48 fire code violations at one of Sharma’s apartment buildings at 3981 Menlo Ave. An arson-caused fire at that building Dec. 1 caused the city attorney’s office to file the probation violation charges for which the arrest warrants were issued Thursday.

In addition, Sharma is free on $250,000 bail stemming from his conviction last November on 112 slum housing counts. He was sentenced to 20 months in jail and fined $153,000 in that case.