An Israeli businessman Thursday admitted illegally renting hundreds of Manhattan apartments – including some in high-profile upper West Side apartment buildings – as makeshift hotel rooms to tourists. Raziel Ofer aka Raz Ofer, 48, amassed a mini hotel empire by renting the flats and subletting them for up to $1,000 a night to tourists on his woogu.com Web site. He collected more than $1.4million in sales tax, but never forwarded the cash to the state, and also evaded up to $2 million in other fees. “Illegal hotels are getting to be a major problem
“” said Manhattan District Attorney Robert Morgenthau. “”An international entrepreneur can operate a lucrative business without shouldering any of the tax burden.”” Ofer
who also rents apartments in Los Angeles
London
Paris and Brazil