Self-proclaimed mystic’s legal troubles lead to tax payoff

The city now owns 14-story building in heart of downtown.

Montgomery County received a $296,026.41 payout to settle the affairs of Annamalai Annamalai, the self-proclaimed Hindu mystic who for a time occupied the Paru Tower on North Main Street downtown.

The check — back property taxes Annamalai owed on the 14-floor building — is coming from attorney Jonathan Hung, acting as the Montgomery County Common Pleas Court-appointed receiver to sell the property.

A bankruptcy case in Georgia involving Annamalai, also known as Dr. Commander Selvam, led to Hung being hired as the court-appointed receiver. The county filed a foreclosure case in May 2013 against the Peru Tower.

Ron Kozar, the local attorney representing the trustee of the bankruptcy estate in Georgia, filed to have the Georgia judgment apply to Annamalai’s Dayton property. Annamalai received a $1.9 million judgment in Georgia for taking money from a “temple” that had been put into bankruptcy.

The only asset here owned by Annamalai’s company was the Paru Tower. But Annamalai had transferred the building to numerous dummy corporations and Kozar had to sort out the transfers so the judgment could be legally applied locally.

The city of Dayton made an offer on the building of $500,000 that included money for the back tax bill, and Hung accepted it. The check arrived at the Montgomery County Treasurer’s Office on May 24.

On the same date, the city took ownership of the building, which Annamalai’s company purchased for $525,000 in cash in August 2010.

The 14-story tower was built in 1926 to house the Third National Bank and Trust company. It later became the Society Bank Building. The Montgomery County treasurer valued the building at $6.3 million in 2000, but in later years its value dropped dramatically.

Annamalai is serving his first year in prison following a 27-year sentence in federal court for multiple counts of mail and credit card fraud.

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