"Odd Little Rental Property Footnote" In Arrest Of North Minneapolis Tax Preparer Leads Back To Interesting Places...

Hennepin County Sheriff's Department mug shot, published by other mass media, it
is a public document and can't be copyrighted, blog post by John Hoff 

If I keep pulling on this string, will it unravel somebody's sweater? (Musical tribute link) 

Previously, I wrote about an "odd little footnote" to the arrest of a North Minneapolis tax preparer who allegedly bilked the State of Minnesota out of, like, more than a million dollars and filed tax returns (allegedly) that were amazing works of fiction. 

What struck me as odd is the tax preparer in question, Rona Estelle Griffin, lives in a RENTAL property. So if her scam was so lucrative, why throw away good green money on (shudder) rent? 

Or, as I like to call it, "habitation serfdom." Of course, since she was hiding vast amounts of income, lack of home ownership may have been a necessary part of the scam. 

It turns out Estelle's apparent landlord, Manoj Moorjani, has a very informative website dedicated to his rental property empire...

Click here for that website and thanks to the oh-so-anonymous reader who drew it to my attention. 

If you look over that website, you'll see Mr. Moorjani runs an entity called Urban Homes LLC. In the wake of the mortgage meltdown, Moorjani purchased a bunch of bunch of properties on the cheap and created rentals. 

How many times in North Minneapolis have we heard this same story? Only THIS MAN apparently rents to a much, much better class of criminal (alleged criminal) than your run-of-the-mill North Minneapolis property mogul, and I could name a few, including one whose name is actually "Moghul." 

But I digress. 

The Manoj Moorjani website has a link to www.urban-homes.net, but that link is currently leads to a "404 error."  


On his website, Moorjani says he started out working as a "business broker" for Calhoun Companies, an entity that allows small business owners to sell off and "exit" their businesses. There's a link on his site for www.calhouncompanies.com but, well, you guessed it...

Another link to a "404 error." 

All of this might mean NOTHING except often enough a landlord (alleged landlord) just can't know what a renter (alleged renter) is into. 

(Troubled little shake of the head)

But why was a woman skimming off a million dollars (allegedly) RENTING in the first place? 

When Johnny Northside blog hears of a North Minneapolis rental property empire, and there's some interesting link to high-profile criminal charges, well, I just like to follow the trail and see where it leads. 

(Singing, off key)

IF YOU WANT TO DESTROY MY SWEATER...