Berkeley Landlord in Sex Scandal
India-West, Jan. 31, 2000
By Viji Sundaram

OAKLAND, CA --Ignoring the pleas of the prosecution that Pasand Restaurant owner Lakireddy Balireddy, charged with importing illegal aliens from India for illegal sexual activities, would likely intimidate witnesses and obstruct justice if released on bail, a federal judge Jan. 25 freed the business tycoon on a $10 million bond.

Federal Magistrate Wayne D. Brazil said that he would accept the offer from three physicians - Lakireddy's brother, Dr. Hanimireddy, a cardiologist in Merced, Calif., Dr. Raj Reddy, also a relative of Lakireddy, and Dr. Ravi Botla of Texas - as well as Bay Area attorney Bill Barland, of their expensive homes as security.

Brazil also stipulated that all those who sign Lakireddy's bond, with the exception of Barland, should turn over their passports to the court.

Reddy, who stood expressionless near his lawyer in his orange prison suit, has been charged with the felony crime of "aiding and abetting the importation into the United States of aliens for immoral purposes" and "encouraging and inducing aliens to enter the United States illegally."

Reddy's attorney Ted Cassman said in a Jan. 20 press release that his client was a "law-abiding citizen who has lived in Berkeley for 40 years.

"Mr. Reddy is a man of integrity, well known and well respected in his community. The inflammatory allegations that have been lodged against Mr. Reddy are untrue."

In another startling development in court here this week, Lakireddy's younger son, Vijaykumar, turned himself in to authorities who were trying to find him last week for allegedly aiding his father in smuggling Indians into the U.S. on temporary work visas.

In another setback for the prosecution, Brazil denied Assistant U.S. Attorney John Kennedy's request that Vijaykumar, who operated Active Tech Solutions, an outfit prosecutors believe was nothing more than a front for bringing in aliens on H-1B work permits, be held in custody lest he flee the U.S. because of the family's ties to India and the vast property they own there.

"He's entitled to be free until his detention hearing," Brazil maintained. "There's no lawful basis to detain him."

Federal law officials arrested the 62-year-old Lakireddy Jan. 14 at his residence in Berkeley, after they found out that he was planning to leave for India on Jan. 17 with one of the young women he allegedly molested.

They charged him with orchestrating a complex scheme of bringing young women, some as young as 14, from Velvadam, his native village in Andhra Pradesh, into the U.S. and using them as his sex slaves.

Lakireddy was also accused of having the immigrant women do maintenance jobs in the 1,000 or so apartment units he owns in Berkeley, and in the Pasand restaurants he owns in Berkeley and Santa Clara.

In exchange, Lakireddy provided them with little else but free board and lodging, according to Berkeley police spokesman Captain Bob Miller. Lakireddy is believed to be the richest landlord in Berkeley.

A million or two million dollars was "chump change" for a man whose assets run into several million, Albuquerque told the court. The prosecution told the court that Lakireddy's Berkeley properties were worth at least $55 million, not including the Pasand restaurant.

Albuquerque told Brazil that just about every resident of Velvadam was in some way indebted to Lakireddy. In a private interview with India-West, Lakireddy's Merced brother, Hanimireddy, said that the Lakireddy family had built two elementary schools, a high school, a hospital wing and a bus shelter in their ancestral village.

Kennedy said Berkeley police received a call on their hotline last week that eight young women who worked for Lakireddy "have been sent back to India since his arrest" on Jan. 14.

"We're concerned that he will intimidate potential witnesses," Kennedy said.