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WHO’S INVOLVED: Botto Barbecque LLC, Botto Barbeque LLC
HOW MUCH DO THEY OWE? $599,312
THE BACKSTORY: Darren Bottinelli’s story is one of crime, redemption, barbecue and, now, tax liens.
For years, Bottinelli ran a seemingly successful firm called Axis Health Partners that held money in tax-free employee health savings accounts. Bottinelli married the daughter of a prominent architect and joined the Waverly Country Club and the Multnomah Athletic Club, according to The Oregonian.
But in 2014, Bottinelli abruptly closed Axis without notifying clients, leaving them to wonder where their HSA money was.
Bottinelli switched careers, starting a food truck called Botto’s BBQ in industrial Northwest Portland. Customers swooned. A WW reviewer waxed poetic in 2016, calling his Texas-style dry-rubbed ribs “the finest I’ve had in this city, with a thick, smoky black bark that slides off the bone like a banana peel, bones that’ll bite in two, and a beautifully limber texture.”
Asked about his past, Bottinelli told our reviewer he was “Obama-cared out of a job” in health insurance and decided to indulge a passion for smoked meat that started when he lived in Austin in the mid-1990s. Little did meat freaks or WW know, but in March 2016, right around the time he opened his cart, Bottinelli had pleaded guilty to fraud for stealing $3 million from 3,000 HSA accountholders.
That December, a federal judge sentenced Bottinelli to almost four years in prison. Billy Williams, then the U.S. attorney for Oregon, said Bottinelli used his customers’ accounts as a “personal ATM” to “maintain a luxurious lifestyle.” Botto’s BBQ closed and Bottinelli headed to the big house in Sheridan.
The feds let him out early for good behavior in July 2019, and he reopened Botto’s. “Slicing lunch at 11:00 today,” Bottinelli announced on Instagram with a shot of charred brisket.
His victims pounced on the post. “Hi, Mr. Bottinelli! I’m JUST one of the disabled folks who not only had the bad luck being disabled by multiple sclerosis but of having money for ‘medical expenses’ held for me by Axis Health Partners stolen by you to support your million-dollar lifestyle,” wrote pen0913.
“Are you still working to pay us our money back from Axis HRA?” asked ashh0216. “I have not received 1 dime in over 5 years.”
The notoriety didn’t hurt business. Bottinelli ditched the cart and moved into the old Pok Pok spot across from the Aladdin Theater in October 2020. The smoked-meat hits kept coming. This year, Yelp users ranked Botto’s No. 54 on its list of the top 100 restaurants in the U.S.
But making money means paying taxes, and Bottinelli hasn’t paid his.
INTERESTING DETAIL: Some of the HSA clients Bottinelli defrauded at Axis were veterans and people with disabilities working at Goodwill Industries of South Texas, Morgan Memorial Goodwill Industries, Job Squad, Cascade Christian Services and Vets Securing America, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
WHAT DOES HE SAY? Bottinelli didn’t return calls or email seeing comment.
WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: Salaries for more than six Oregon State Police troopers for a year.