By all accounts, Vladyslav Yurov was living the rags-to-riches American dream. When he was 20 years old, the Ukrainian national came to the U.S.
on a student exchange program and decided to stay, he said in a since-deleted Instagram video. He worked multiple low-wage jobs in Ohio, learned English and tried to make ends meet. He moved to Los Angeles and spent all his savings setting up his first rental unit for Airbnb, only to lose his lease two months later because, he said in the video, the arrangement wasn’t legal.
He didn’t give up. By age 29, Yurov was a millionaire, operating 28 “fully automated” short-term rentals on Airbnb and other hosting platforms, making more than $200,000 every month. He even found a way to monetize his business model, running an online Airbnb “Hosting Academy” where clients paid to be taught his techniques.
In an Instagram post, he wrote about how he helped students “make thousands with properties they don’t even own.” Four weeks later, all of that came crashing down. On June 20, Los Angeles City Atty.
Hydee Feldstein Soto’s office filed a lawsuit against Yurov, his companies Skysun and Hugs & Smile, and two business partners, alleging that they made more than $4 million by leasing properties from Los Angeles landlords on a long-term basis, then renting out the units as illegal short-term lodgings. The lawsuit alleges that they operated more than 30 illegal rental properties across L.A.
since 2020, including at least 10 that a.