Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost's Office Sued by Parcel Revenue Corporation for $1.6 Billion

BEACHWOOD, Ohio, Feb. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Parcel Revenue Corporation ("PRC") announced today that it, along with its CEO, Kevin Ra, has filed a $1.6 Billion lawsuit against the Ohio Attorney General's Office for intentionally misleading government officials from several Ohio municipalities into believing Ra violated Ohio law when he was the Executive Director of two non-profit agencies from 2012 to 2018.

"The attorney general's office must be held accountable for its clear and intentional violations of Ohio law as it relates to Mr. Ra and Parcel Revenue," says Wendy S. Rosett, the lead attorney representing PRC in the case. "Despite Mr. Ra's groundbreaking contributions in research and software development aimed at reducing the number of abandoned homes and buildings in urban communities, the attorney general's office continues to violate the law and unlawfully interfere with his career and business opportunities. These latest tactics have unlawfully and unfairly costed my client millions of dollars and we will prove it. The AG filed a meritless lawsuit in 2017, admitted under oath that they could not substantiate their claims, and immediately offered to settle rather than litigate against Mr. Ra when they realized he was not the slightest bit intimidated. We believe these latest tactics are racially motivated because Mr. Ra is a black man who stood up to the white male power structure that has dominated the AG's office for years".

Founded in 2018, Parcel Revenue has pioneered the development of software which can effectively track, manage, and eliminate unproductive parcels of land, including abandoned homes and buildings. In its beta testing phase, the system recovered millions of dollars in back taxes owed to Cuyahoga County, where Cleveland is located, and spurned millions of dollars in reinvestment into Cleveland's urban communities. All of this was accomplished with a legal pad, a laptop computer, and a cell phone.

The theories and algorithms on which the software is based, called Virtual Land Reutilization, does in days or weeks what county land banks take months or even years to do: turn unproductive properties over to responsible ownership. The system also is able to predict when properties are at high risk of being abandoned months or years before they are abandoned, where current methods only notify cities of vacancies months or years after the vacancies occur.

The data and research behind the system was recently reviewed by a professor from John Hopkins University's applied mathematics department, which previously researched solutions for Baltimore's abandoned homes crisis, and a conclusion was reached that the system developed by Ra and Parcel Revenue surpassed the data and research conducted by John Hopkins in terms of its overall potential effectiveness in solving the dilemma of abandoned properties.

Prior to founding Parcel Revenue, Ra was a real estate investor and systems engineer who invented a system similar to Parcel Revenue to buy and sell almost 400 vacant, abandoned homes in Northeast Ohio. Over the twelve years it took to develop the system into a platform that could be sold to and used by cities, Ra went bankrupt twice and lost his 6,000 square foot home to foreclosure.

According to Rosett, Ra's sacrifices paid off in late 2017 when PRC received a $1.87 Million initial "seed round" valuation from Eric Golubitsky, one of Cleveland's most established venture capital entrepreneurs whose accomplishments include winning the prestigious Case Western Reserve University's Weatherhead 100 Award which recognizes the fastest growing companies in Northeast Ohio. Due to the attorney general's press release, which Rosett says the office refused to delete or update even after the attorney general's state court case was settled in Ra's favor, the investment was cancelled.

The lawsuit was filed in the Ohio Court of Claims which has exclusive jurisdiction to hear all cases where the state of Ohio or one of its agencies or divisions is the defendant. The five-count complaint can be viewed at this link.

About Parcel Revenue Corporation

Parcel Revenue Corporation is developing the technology platforms of tomorrow that will aid local governments nationwide in the fight against blight, increase incoming tax revenues, and predict housing vacancies before they occur. Local governments can learn more by visiting www.ahponline.org and clicking the blue "GOVERNMENT" tab on the home page.

SOURCE Parcel Revenue Corporation

Related Links

http://parcelrevenue.com/