Judge orders Arkansas landlord to pay $20K fine for violating lawsuit settlement

A Central Arkansas landlord with a history of legal issues must pay a $20,000 penalty for violating the settlement of a consumer protection lawsuit against him, a Pulaski County Circuit Court judge ordered Tuesday.

Then-Attorney General Leslie Rutledge sued Imran Bohra and his company, Entropy Systems Inc., in 2019 for alleged deceptive business practices. The 2022 settlement requires Bohra and Entropy Systems to pay a $20,000 fine if they are found to have knowingly rented out units with outstanding code violations.

One of the terms of the settlement required Bohra “to include an addendum on all leases notifying tenants of their right to file a complaint with the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office,” according to court documents.

Current AG Tim Griffin reopened the case in January, claiming 44 leases that Bohra initiated after the settlement did not include the required addendum. Griffin asked Judge Herbert Wright to enforce the $20,000 fine; Wright granted the petition after a hearing Tuesday.

Wright’s order fulfills Griffin’s request to block Bohra and Entropy from entering any new lease agreements until the landlord includes the required addendum in all existing leases. The order also forbids the defendants from entering any leases until after paying the entirety of the fine.

“Today’s order sends a message to those who engage in deceptive tactics against Arkansas consumers: We will stop you,” Griffin said in a statement from his office.

Bohra owned 150 properties in Pulaski County at the time of Rutledge’s lawsuit in August 2019. Many of his low-income tenants experienced substandard living conditions and quick evictions, according to an Arkansas Democrat-Gazette investigation that precipitated the lawsuit.

In August 2022, Entropy was cited in Little Rock Environmental Court for city code violations — including nonworking drains and faucets, a broken water heater and holes in the walls and ceilings — at a house on West 24th Street that Bohra owned and leased to tenant Terry Lauderdale.

Bohra’s attorney, Edward Adcock, told the court that the house had no code violations when Lauderdale and his roommates moved in, so he argued that the fine in the settlement with the state did not apply.

The 24th Street case closed in March 2023.

Adcock could not be reached for comment Tuesday.