Companies Assessed Tax Judgment

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Los Angeles city prosecutors have won judgments ordering two local companies to pay $7.8 million in unpaid taxes, City Attorney Carmen Trutanich announced Friday.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Barbara Meiers on Thursday ordered former parking lot operator Prestige Parking to pay $4.4 million in business and parking occupancy taxes that went unpaid from 2002 through 2005. Prestige Parking had operated at least 47 parking lots throughout the city.

Meiers also ordered Majestic Towers Inc., the entity owning the Wilshire Hotel at 3515 Wilshire Blvd. in Koreatown, to pay $3.5 million in hotel bed taxes the city claimed it owed. The order was issued on Feb. 18, but the office of City Attorney Carmen Trutanich only publicized the order on Friday.

Prestige Parking attorney Roger Diamond said the city had sought a much higher payment from the parking lot operator but had to settle for $2.9 million in principal and $1.6 million in interest after Judge Meiers refused to admit as evidence federal and state tax returns Prestige Parking had filed.

Diamond said Prestige Parking had been prepared to argue that the city was charging taxes on lots that it no longer operated. He added that the company no longer operates any parking lots in the city after exiting the business last year.

James Gilbert, the attorney representing Majestic Towers, could not immediately be reached for comment.

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Howard Fine
Howard Fine is a 23-year veteran of the Los Angeles Business Journal. He covers stories pertaining to healthcare, biomedicine, energy, engineering, construction, and infrastructure. He has won several awards, including Best Body of Work for a single reporter from the Alliance of Area Business Publishers and Distinguished Journalist of the Year from the Society of Professional Journalists.

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