He used its profits to purchase over 1,000 run-down apartments, making him, by the year 2000, the largest and wealthiest landlord in the city (other than the University of California), with a worth estimated at US$69 million.

[1] In 2000, Reddy was indicted by the United States Attorney for the Northern District of California who charged him with sex trafficking, visa fraud, and tax code violations[1] following a lengthy investigation by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor, and the Berkeley Police Department.

[7][9] Reddy also owned a construction company with his brother Hanimireddy Lakireddy (a Yale University-trained cardiologist)[1] that was located near his restaurant in Berkeley.

[7] Anita Chabria, a California-based journalist, wrote, "Reddy ruled over his victims like a feudal lord, imposing his law rather than U.S. law by keeping his targets isolated and afraid — of him, and of their tenuous position as illegal immigrants — and by importing the rules of the caste system, an apartheid that India has fought to eradicate but that still governs the daily lives of many Hindus".

[1] Poole noticed, in the crowd of bystanders, a distraught young Indian girl, later identified as 18-year-old Laxmi Patati.

Police found the body of 13-year-old Sitha Vemireddy (later identified as one of Reddy's concubines) in the apartment building's stairwell.

[1] Reddy told the police that Patati was the roommate of sisters Sitha and Lalitha and had discovered them both unconscious when she returned to their shared apartment.

Police accepted Reddy's story, and the coroner ruled the death of Sitha to be accidental carbon monoxide poisoning caused by a blocked heating vent, and the investigation was closed.

Using their own interpreters for this new investigation, the Berkeley Police and INS caused Reddy associates Venkateswara Vemireddy and his sister, Padma, to confess that he was not Sitha's father.

[10] The original nine-count U.S. federal indictment charged Reddy with conspiracy to commit immigration fraud, transportation of minors for illegal sexual activity, and false statements on a tax return.

[1] In Reddy's new plea agreement, he admitted that, between 1986 and January 2000, he illegally brought Indian nationals into the United States using fraudulent visas and admitted that he made arrangements to have Venkateswara Vemireddy enter the United States on a fraudulent visa and to bring his sister posing as his wife.

Everest alone advertises more than 100 properties available in Berkeley and surrounding areas on its website, which means Reddy collects millions of dollars of rent every year.

[12][13] Lakireddy Bali Reddy was the subject of the book Slaves of Berkeley: The Shocking Story of Human Trafficking in the United States by Tim Huddleston.

[14] According to Huddleston: "Lakireddy Bali Reddy was a noted successful businessman; he owned restaurants and real estate all over Northern California and made over $1,000,000 a month from his income properties.

This is the story of the human trafficking ring that shook a nation and opened the door for reform in the United States.