DARREN C. BOTTINELLI

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. ANTHONY EFFINGER.

SMELL THE FLOWER: Rose Buds PDX operates in North Portland.

KYLE K. DOBASHI

HOW MUCH DOES HE OWE? $586,140

THE BACKSTORY: Dobashi, 47, is a volleyball coach, DJ and weed entrepreneur. The bulk of his debt is nearly a half million dollars in marijuana sales taxes owed by Rose Budz PDX, a dispensary operating out of a North Portland warehouse owned by MSST Holdings LLC, which is controlled by Dobashi. Three of his other businesses, including a Beaverton volleyball club and the Milwaukie weed dispensary Top Hat Express, also owe smaller amounts of various state taxes.

INTERESTING DETAIL: Dobashi is the director of T.E.A.M. Hiki No, a Beaverton youth volleyball club that describes itself as “committed to providing a family oriented culture that facilitates the discovery of life lessons through the game of volleyball.”

WHAT DOES HE SAY? Dobashi says he recently changed accountants after his last one failed to file tax returns, and is now working with the state to get his name removed from the list. He tells WW that the amount he owes is “significantly less” than DOR estimates. “We have nothing to hide,” he said.

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: They could cover participation fees for 4,500 kids to attend Portland Parks & Recreation’s Youth Volleyball Camp this summer. LUCAS MANFIELD.

OWEN L. HOUSEL

HOW MUCH DOES HE OWE? $473,599

THE BACKSTORY: Owen Housel is a big man—6 feet tall and 200 pounds, according to a traffic ticket—and a big mystery. Except for his tax bill, he has left a small imprint on the public record. He appears to have played football at Yamhill Carlton High School (Yawama conference All-Star, 1972) and later attended the Oregon College of Education (now Western Oregon University), where, according to a student newspaper, he refereed a powderpuff football game in 1976. He briefly—from 1993 to 1995—had a company in Lake Oswego called Owen L. Housel Inc. Housel, 68, got divorced in 1994 and again in 2020. It’s unclear how he ever made enough money to owe nearly half a million dollars to the Department of Revenue (he also has substantial federal tax liens).

Housel’s second ex-wife, Terri Housel, says it’s a mystery to her. “I never knew anything about his finances even when we were married,” she says. She wasn’t sure who could shed light on her ex’s financial situation. “I didn’t know any of his friends even when we were married,” she says. “I don’t know much about him.”

John Rusk, a lawyer who represented Housel in a family probate case a decade ago, expressed puzzlement that Housel made the DOR list. “I find that very dubious,” Rusk says. “He didn’t have assets to speak of when I knew him.” Rusk adds that Housel was legally blind and in poor health and may have died, although WW could locate neither him nor any record of his death.

INTERESTING DETAIL: Housel, a registered Democrat, hasn’t voted since 2008.

WHAT DOES HE SAY? Housel could not be reached for comment.

WHAT THE BACK TAXES COULD BUY: At an average salary of $66,000, it would pay seven teachers’ salaries for a year. NIGEL JAQUISS.