https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/z3mk7y/85m-nationwide-airbnb-scam-targeted-black-people-prosecutors-allege

Two alleged fraudsters were indicted in an multi-million dollar, nationwide Airbnb scam this week. If that wasn’t bad enough, the federal government now alleges that the scam specifically discriminated against Black renters, according to a press release published Thursday and a new indictment by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.

The Wednesday indictment against Shray Goel, 35, of Miami and Shaunik Raheja, 34, of Denver accuses them of raking in $8.5 million through a series of scams on Airbnb and Vrbo. Both men were first identified in a 2019 VICE investigation by reporter Allie Conti.