Jeff Bezos Paid $16,000 in Parking Tickets for Washington DC Mansion: Report

Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos who paid $23 million in an all-cash deal for the old Textile Museum in the upscale Kalorama neighbourhood in the US capital, also paid $16,840 as parking fines during the renovation from October 2016 till October 2019.

According to news organisation WUSA9, Amazon-employed contractors who converted the museum into a 34,000-square-foot palatial mansion with 11 bedrooms raked up $16,840 (roughly Rs. 12 lakhs) in parking tickets.

Bezos reportedly spent another $12 million (roughly Rs. 85 crores) to renovate his house in one of DC's quieter neighbourhoods. Beaux-Arts mansions in Kalorama are occupied by Obamas and Ivanka Trump, among others.

The WUSA9 news team obtained records from the DC Department of Public Works and found that the city handed out 564 citations in the 2200 and 2300 blocks of S Street, where Bezos' property is located.

Of the 564 citations written over three years, $5,600 worth of tickets were unpaid, some dating back years.

"It's the Amazon embassy. I think he's about to take on this whole section of the city," a neighbour was quoted as saying.

The mansion includes 11 bedrooms, a ballroom, wine cellar, whiskey tasting room, a movie theatre and more than 1,000 light fixtures.

According to reports, the world's richest man with $129 billion fortune has bought another mansion right across the street for $5 million.

Besides his two Washington DC mansions and his Beverly Hills compound, Bezos also has prime property in Seattle and Manhattan, where he recently shelled out $80 million on a Fifth Avenue property.

It is often reported that Bezos and his girlfriend Lauren Sanchez are looking for new LA properties.