The Oregonian/OregonLive reported on Monday that after receiving $70 million in taxpayer funding for housing and feeding wildfire survivors in hotels he purchased in Oregon, the head of Fortify Holdings, Sean Keys, was one of the state’s largest tax delinquents.
Fortify Holdings, based in Beaverton, Oregon, has six hotels in the Tri-Cities and in May the Tri-City Herald reported on tax problems here as well.
According to the Oregonian’s report, in addition to being delinquent by almost $1 million on his personal taxes, until last week Keys was also delinquent on $718,000 in property taxes in Lincoln City and Eugene.
Keys’ past problems
In 2021, the Oregonian reported that Keys was a player in a 2019 federal criminal case in Oregon involving house flipping by a company known as Iris Capital.
Keys was the real estate manager for Iris Capital. His boss Shayne Kniss was sentenced to three years in prison for fleecing investors of $5 million, and U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman told Kniss that bigger players were “paying their way out of this problem while you’re left holding the bag.”
Keys paid an undisclosed amount to settle his case civilly.
Keys created Fortify Holdings LLC in 2018. Since 2020, the company has been on a buying binge of rundown hotels in the Northwest.
Keys told the Oregonian that his personal taxes were being reviewed by professionals and blamed economic challenges for his property tax delinquencies.