LA actual property agent Mike Kobeissi sentenced for hearth sufferer value gouging

The luxurious actual property agent who constructed his picture round posing with Bugattis, Rolls-Royces, glamorous girls and multi-million-dollar listings has been sentenced after prosecutors accused him of making an attempt to squeeze cash out of wildfire victims desperately looking for a spot to stay.

Mike Kobeissi, who manufacturers himself as “Mr. La Canada,” acquired 12 months of probation, 100 hours of group service, necessary ethics coaching and was ordered to pay $20,000 to a catastrophe aid fund, California’s Legal professional Common Rob Bonta introduced Thursday.

“Might this announcement function a stern warning to those that would search to additional victimize those that have misplaced every part,” Bonta mentioned in an announcement.

“My workplace is aggressively and relentlessly pursuing those that are attempting to make a fast buck off another person’s ache.”

The case marked one of many first legal prosecutions introduced after the January 2025 wildfires that devastated Altadena and the Pacific Palisades, displacing hundreds of residents who immediately flooded the rental market.

Though Kobeissi was initially charged with violating California’s emergency post-disaster value gouging legislation, his lawyer, Dale Galipo, mentioned he was in the end convicted of a separate misdemeanor rely of false promoting.

“This was an unlucky state of affairs,” Galipo instructed the LAist. “Mike didn’t make $1 off of this example. And it’s unlucky that it occurred, however we had been pleased to get it resolved.”

Based on Bonta’s workplace, the investigation started after a pair whose house was destroyed within the Eaton Fireplace utilized to lease a property listed by Kobeissi.

After submitting their utility, they had been knowledgeable the month-to-month lease had been elevated by 38% above the marketed value, prosecutors mentioned.

They declined to lease the house and reported the incident to the Legal professional Common’s workplace.

“I must be rewarded,” he mentioned on the time. “It’s utterly reverse, what they’re claiming,” Kobeissi claimed. 

California’s emergency anti-price gouging legislation prohibited landlords from elevating rents by greater than 10% above pre-disaster marketed costs through the emergency interval.

Bonta’s workplace didn’t instantly clarify why the unique value gouging cost was later dropped.

As a part of his sentence, Kobeissi should additionally write an apology letter to the couple.

A handful of different landlords and actual property brokers have additionally been charged over alleged violations of the post-fire lease gouging ban, although their circumstances stay unresolved.

Tenant advocacy group The Hire Brigade has criticized enforcement efforts, saying solely a handful of prosecutions emerged regardless of the group figuring out 18,360 rental listings it believed possible violated the emergency guidelines.

Los Angeles County’s post-fire lease gouging protections remained in impact for about 16 months earlier than officers lifted them in Might.

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