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WHO’S INVOLVED: Vu and four limited liability companies he is associated with, according to the DOR’s list.
HOW MUCH DO THEY OWE? $693,434
THE BACKSTORY: Man Vu is a personal injury and business lawyer who practices out of Northeast Portland. But he partook in the cannabis boom, too.
Vu, 47, was a managing member of two dispensaries that shut down in recent years. Vu blames COVID-19, employee and partner turnover, and two robberies at gunpoint. According to state business filings, the only active business of which Vu has ownership is his law practice.
Court records show he was sued for $100,000, alongside several others, after they allegedly abandoned a dispensary lease in Northeast Portland in 2019. He’s been sued several times in small claims court over credit card debt and alleged nonpayment of rent for his law office at Northeast Halsey Street and 111th Avenue.
He’s also been sued three times in recent years for legal malpractice or negligence; at least two of the cases ended in a settlement. It appears he lives in a Happy Valley home owned by his elderly parents.
WHAT DOES HE SAY? Vu says he does owe some late taxes, but the number listed is wrong because the Department of Revenue inaccurately “estimated what the [marijuana] tax should’ve been” even after he shut down both of his dispensaries. (He says he closed one four years ago and the other two years ago.)
Other businesses Vu is associated with that are included on the DOR listing were never operational, he says. “I don’t even know why they would owe taxes.”
“Right now, we’re trying to finally close the business down and file the taxes so that we’re current,” Vu adds. “I’ve talked to [the DOR] and they said they’re going to reduce it a bunch once the actual filings are submitted.”
WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: They could cover the annual billings for four lawyers.