Philly mayoral candidate Amen Brown’s business dealings left a trail of debt, lawsuits, and jilted partners

West Philadelphia State Rep. Amen Brown, one of nine Democrats running for mayor, has pitched himself as a self-made entrepreneur who rose out of poverty.

Charismatic and affable, Brown has used his success story to relate to voters in Philadelphia’s most underserved neighborhoods, saying his ability to overcome hardships and systemic inequities qualifies him to be mayor.

But an Inquirer review of financial documents, property records, and court filings shows that Brown’s business and real estate dealings over the last decade have been mired in repeated accusations of legal and financial impropriety.

Former business partners say he broke contracts and bilked them out of their investments. Day-care centers he owned have accumulated thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes. He has been on the losing end of multiple lawsuits filed by angry creditors.

In one instance, an associate said he lent Brown $50,000 for a real estate investment, but when it was time to pay up, Brown was unresponsive. He said he hasn’t been paid to this day.

In another case, Brown faced felony charges after he bought a house from a man in 2014 who was dead at the time of the sale. The charges were dropped, but a judge ruled the sale was fraudulent — part of an endemic problem of bogus deed transfers in gentrifying neighborhoods.

And Brown, 35, has accrued more than $100,000 in other liens and judgments.

While debts are not uncommon, the breadth of Brown’s obligations is wide — and ongoing. As Brown was seeking reelection to the state House last year, the City of Philadelphia sued him and a partner for more than $30,000 in unpaid taxes and penalties.

Last spring, he didn’t disclose his creditors and business interests as legally required, and a judge excoriated him, writing that Brown displayed “an ignorance and shocking lack of care of the law for a sitting member of Pennsylvania’s General Assembly.”

Brown did not respond to requests for comment. After The Inquirer sent questions to his campaign, John Raimondi, an attorney representing Brown, responded to some in an email, writing that Brown “has no criminal record” and is working to satisfy his debts and unpaid taxes.

Raimondi also said Brown was a victim in the deed fraud case, saying his client was tricked into purchasing a house by someone with the same name as the true owner. Raimondi acknowledged the sale was fraudulent.

Brown has nodded to missteps before, saying in December that he “made some mistakes along the way in becoming an entrepreneur.”

Still, he and his supporters see a path to the Mayor’s Office given the large field and his tough-on-crime posture as the city is in the midst of a gun violence crisis.

He’s also attracted monied interests who have indicated they would pour millions into a super PAC to make him the mayor of Philadelphia. In December, he drew significant buzz during the preeminent event of Pennsylvania’s political class when those benefactors hosted a swanky fund-raiser for him in a New York City cigar bar.

Brown told them he’s committed to doing “what it takes to bring our city back.”

“My message is simple,” he said. “I am living proof that no matter what your circumstances are, you can break the barriers and achieve what you want in life.”

Brown’s first electoral win was something of an upset.

He launched a bid in 2020 to represent what was then the 190th House District, a swath of West Philadelphia that over one year saw two representatives resign after being charged with crimes.

The Democrat who replaced them, Roni Green, was expected to prevail. But she’d been in office just a few months, and Brown was listed first on the ballot in a four-way race.

For weeks, Brown crisscrossed the district, delivering masks and sanitizer to residents as the COVID-19 pandemic was raging. Then, despite raising less than $10,000, Brown won the primary by 600 votes. He went on to decisively win the general.

Brown told voters his story. He says he can relate to people in poverty because he grew up in a single-parent household and sometimes didn’t know where his next meal would come from.

He talks about gun violence as a victim, saying he was shot in the back at a young age.

And Brown has said he has a unique perspective on jail reform. He was incarcerated for 12 days, city records show, in October 2006 at age 19. Records obtained by The Inquirer show Brown faced felony drug-dealing charges, but after about five months of delays in prosecution, the charges were dropped. The records do not say why the case was dismissed, and the District Attorney’s Office said it can’t comment on expunged records.

Over the next decade, Brown took on a handful of real estate ventures and opened three day-care centers, but he has said he is no longer involved in the day-to-day.

In March, the city issued a judgment that Brown and a business partner who operated a Frankford day care owed more than $30,000 for failing to pay taxes on wages, profits, and business income. The state also filed more than $14,000 in liens against Brown for unpaid personal income taxes and unemployment compensation accrued through another day care.

He’s held these liabilities while serving in the state House, where he’s found allies on both sides of the aisle.

Since taking office in 2021, Brown has championed a handful of Democratic priorities. He’s also antagonized members of his own party, and his approach to crime and pro-charter school positions endeared him to some Republicans. When Brown ran for reelection last year in the newly drawn 10th District, he drew a challenger from the left.

He raised more than $250,000 ahead of the primary, a sizable haul. About a quarter came from groups that promote charter schools and are linked to Jeffrey Yass, the state’s wealthiest man. Another significant chunk came from developers.

What proved challenging was staying on the ballot.

In early 2022, Brown had more than two dozen liens and judgments against him. But according to his statement of financial interests — which elected officials are required to file — he didn’t have a single creditor.

In April, voters from the 10th District petitioned the Commonwealth Court to have Brown kicked off the ballot for failing to disclose his creditors.

He didn’t list the liens filed by the city or state.

He didn’t list Eugene Zlotnikov, who sued Brown in 2015, saying when he was a developer, he paid Brown to rehab a North Philadelphia rowhouse – but Brown didn’t finish the job. A default judgment for $26,500 was issued in favor of Zlotnikov, who had yet to be paid in full.

And he didn’t list J. Lynn Enterprises, a limited liability company used by Jeffrey Brooks Jr., one of Brown’s former business associates.

Brooks issued Brown a $50,000 loan in 2018 that was intended to be used on a real estate venture, Brooks said in an interview, but Brown paid only $23,000 back, then stopped responding to messages. In 2020, Brooks successfully sued Brown for the rest, plus interest and penalties, totaling more than $64,000. Brooks said he didn’t hear from Brown for months.

That is, until April 4 — the day after the petition to get Brown removed from the ballot was filed. Brooks kept text messages from the time and verified the date of the call.

According to Brooks, Brown told him he was in trouble and asked Brooks to tell the court that he had been paid — even though he had not.

“I’m like, ‘Well you owe 64 grand,’” Brooks recalled. “He said he could give me 15 grand now and 15 grand next week, and then I could sign something. And I said, ‘That’s not going to work.’”

The next day, Brown testified in Commonwealth Court that he had only recently learned the extent of his obligations, which totaled more than $144,000.

According to filings, Brown testified he didn’t include the debts on his disclosure form — which is supposed to include debts over $6,500 from the preceding year — because he misunderstood the word creditor on the form.

He testified that he believed it referred to credit cards and mortgages, which he said he didn’t have.

Records show Brown did hold a mortgage on a West Philadelphia house in the preceding year. Three days after he filed his disclosure form, the city Records Department received a deed transfer on the house that was dated August 2021. It was sold to mortgage lenders for $1 in lieu of foreclosure.

Neither Brown nor his attorney responded to questions from The Inquirer about the timing of the sale.

Following Brown’s testimony, Commonwealth Court Judge Stacy Wallace ruled he could amend his disclosure and stay on the ballot, but she chastised him.

Wallace wrote in an opinion that Brown’s mistake resulted “from the lackadaisical attitude he routinely displays toward serious matters.” She wrote the failure was consistent with Brown’s “general irresponsibility and poor handling of his affairs.”

Brown refiled his disclosure and listed creditors including the city, the state, Zlotnikov’s firm, and Brooks’ company.

He went on to win the primary by 200 votes.

Brown and Raimondi did not respond to questions about the forms. Raimondi wrote that Brown is “working to satisfy” the civil judgments.

Brooks said that he has still not been paid and that the loss of funds — coupled with his own pandemic-related financial challenges — left him strapped.

“He had every opportunity to resolve this and hasn’t,” Brooks said. “Sixty-four thousand dollars could change my life right now as far as giving me that immediate reset button.”

And Zlotnikov said he had to hire another contractor to complete the job that Brown was supposed to do, then sold the property at a loss. He said Brown never responded to attempts to settle outside court.

“I have not been paid or recouped any of my losses,” he said, “despite trying to reach out many times over the years to work out a repayment arrangement.”

One of Brown’s first forays into real estate resulted in a criminal probe and a fraud judgment in civil court.

In January 2014, Brown bought a rowhouse on the 2300 block of Reed Street in the gentrifying Point Breeze neighborhood for $15,000. The deed transfer was signed by the owner, Norman Johnson — who died in 2003.

Dubious deed transfers are prevalent in Philadelphia, and perpetrators commonly look for vacant homes in neighborhoods with rising property values. They forge a deed, transfer it to themselves, and then sell the house for profit.

Brown was arrested six months after the sale and charged with four felony charges of theft and forgery.

Over five months, the case was repeatedly delayed. Then a judge dismissed it. Court records obtained by The Inquirer say prosecutors were not ready and were looking for an additional witness. A transcript of the proceeding wasn’t available, and the District Attorney’s Office declined to comment.

Brown maintains he is the fraud victim. Raimondi said Brown was tricked into purchasing the house by someone with the same name as the owner who signed over the deed. He said Brown lost the $15,000 that he spent on the property.

Johnson’s daughter sued Brown and the notary who signed the deed transfer, telling the Court of Common Pleas that her father’s signature was forged and the deed was a fraud. A judge ruled the deed was fraudulently executed and the transfer was declared null and void.

Brown, according to court papers, was “forever barred from asserting any claim” on the house.

Johnson’s daughter declined an interview request. Her attorney, James Radmore, said Brown’s explanation that he was duped doesn’t add up. Despite facing criminal charges in 2014, Brown didn’t return the home until September 2016, after he was ordered by a judge to do so. And Brown never tried to recoup his $15,000.

Raimondi said the plaintiff’s procedural errors made the case drag on, and Brown never contested the decision. He didn’t attempt to get back his investment, Raimondi said, because “the money was long gone and he decided to move on.”

Radmore said Johnson’s daughter has not been able to. He said the ordeal tainted her family home, which sits on a quaint block across the street from a bustling park and remains boarded up today.

“She’s really afraid to move back in,” Radmore said.

Staff writers Ryan Briggs, Jake Blumgart, and Sean Collins Walsh contributed to this article.