District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb said Thursday that his office is charging a landlord with the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act for running a “slumlord empire.”

Schwalb alleged that Sam Razjooyan ran a “Ponzi-like” scheme by submitting false loan documents to trick lenders into granting him large loans to purchase rent-controlled properties under the guise of profitable redevelopment and defrauded the district’s housing subsidies programs by more than $16 million.