Los Angeles Billionaire Moves To Nevada After California Threatens To Tax Wealth |
OnJanuary 8th, an anonymous buyer shelled out $21 million for a 5,000-square-foot luxury penthouse at the swank Summit Club just outside Las Vegas, the most ever paid for a condo in the area. The buyer was longtime Los Angeles billionaire Don Hankey, who tells Forbes exclusively that the reason behind his high-price purchase was California’s new proposed 5% billionaire wealth tax.
“It’s ridiculous,” says Hankey, phoning from his new digs in the Silver State. “We've already lost a lot of wealthy people and a lot of good companies that have been moving out of California. This is just going to continue the trend.”
Hankey, 82, had lived in California all his life and had built his Hankey Group financial services empire there since 1972. But he says he read about the proposed new tax this fall and by December was looking for property in Nevada, where he already has an office building. He ended up with a five-bedroom........