Hotelier Fined $175,000 for Failure to Pay Taxes
The operator of the Radisson Plaza Hotel & Golf Course in Manhattan Beach was fined and ordered to pay restitution of $175,000 after pleading no contest this week to charges that he failed to pay the state thousands of dollars in taxes deducted from employees’ paychecks.
By entering the plea Monday in South Bay Municipal Court, hotelier Horst Osterkamp avoided a possible jail sentence for not forwarding $127,000 in disability insurance and income taxes to the state, said Deputy Dist. Atty. Peter Burke.
Osterkamp has already turned over a check for more than $94,000 for the back taxes and agreed to pay the remaining $33,000. Judge Gary Daigh also placed Osterkamp on probation for one year and fined him $48,000.
The prosecutor dismissed three related misdemeanor charges in exchange for Osterkamp’s no-contest plea for having kept tax money that he collected in 1987.
The hotelier and his lawyer did not return several telephone calls this week.
Osterkamp is president of US Hotel Properties, which operates the 364-room Radisson and a dozen other American hotels.
The Manhattan Beach hotel has been beset by such a variety of problems that its owners--a partnership headed by the investment firm of Shearson Lehman Hutton Inc.--has considered hiring a new management firm.
Since 1988, the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 814 has been attempting to negotiate higher wages and improved benefits for 275 maids, cashiers and waiters at the hotel. The union has called on the hotel’s owners to throw out Osterkamp.
In August, 1988, the company that runs the Radisson’s restaurants and bars filed for protection from creditors under Chapter 11 of the federal bankruptcy code.
In June, Osterkamp pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge in a similar case: He failed to pay an 8 1/2% bed tax to Manhattan Beach. Manhattan Beach Finance Director Merle Lundberg said this week that Osterkamp owes $117,000, but that he has consistently been paying the past-due taxes.
