Former University of Wisconsin basketball great and NBA all-star Devin Harris is a secret owner of a company that owns more than 60 Milwaukee rental properties that racked up $193,636 in fines for building code violations from 2012 to 2014, according to sources and records obtained by the Journal Sentinel.

The company, Los Angeles-based Divine Momentum Real Estate LLC, largely ignored the fines until late 2014 when it began making payments. This month, the company still owed about $38,000 in fines and $121,757 in taxes — down from the $64,895 in fines and $251,000 in back taxes it owed at the beginning of the year, before the company was contacted by a Journal Sentinel reporter.

Over three years, Divine Momentum had 57 cases filed against it in municipal court — so many that it was “the number one offender in the City of Milwaukee as it relates to code enforcement,” according to Adam Stephens, a deputy city attorney. Those comments came in a November letter rejecting the company’s request to waive all of its remaining fines. The company said it owed $88,564 on the fines when it requested the waiver last July.

Devin Harris

owned: 66



Fines owed: $38,027



Delinquent taxes: $121,757



Properties with monthly inspections: 12



Additional notes: Devin Harris, a one-time NBA all-star and former University of Wisconsin basketball great, is the financial muscle behind the company. City propertiesowned:Fines owed:Delinquent taxes:Properties with monthly inspections:Devin Harris, a one-time NBA all-star and former University of Wisconsin basketball great, is the financial muscle behind the company.

Johnny Ridley, a friend of Harris’ since high school, told the Journal Sentinel he urged Harris, 33, to get into the property business.

Harris’ name does not appear on any public paperwork for Divine Momentum, but Ridley confirmed that Harris owned the company and provided the funds to buy 67 properties from one seller for a price of about $9,000 each. One has since been bulldozed after a fire.

It is unclear whether Harris has any partners in the venture.

Harris is finishing his 11th NBA season. He was the fifth player chosen in the 2004 NBA draft. In 2014, he signed a four-year deal with the Dallas Mavericks that ESPN reported was worth $16.55 million. Last year, he was inducted into UW’s Athletic Hall of Fame.

While Harris was performing on the court, records show that many of the properties his company owns were crumbling.

“Things just sort of fell apart,” said David Krey, a code enforcement supervisor for the city’s Department of Neighborhood Services.

Krey noted that in the spring of 2014 the company hired a new property manager, replacing Ridley in the role. With the help of city officials, the new manager developed a plan to bring the properties up to code.

“Based on what he was given to work with, they’re doing pretty good,” Krey said.

As of April 12, a dozen of Divine Momentum’s properties were still being inspected every month — a step the city takes when a landlord repeatedly fails to bring a property up to code. An additional five properties have violations that have not yet been repaired.

A closely held secret

Harris’ involvement in Divine Momentum has been a closely held secret. Municipal judges, city attorneys and various other city officials said they had no idea who was behind Divine Momentum.

Krey said all he knew was what Ridley, the original property manager, told him — that “the owner had money.”

In addition to Ridley’s confirmation, Mark Kivley, owner of a brokerage team involved in the sale of the 67 properties purchased by Divine Momentum in May 2012, said he was told during the transaction that Harris was an owner of Divine Momentum.

Harris has used the Divine Momentum name on other ventures, according to records filed with Texas regulators. Records show he is the president of Divine Momentum LLC and Divine Momentum Entertainment LLC. Both of those corporations are inactive, said Monica Kim, attorney for Divine Momentum Real Estate.

Kim, based in Los Angeles, repeatedly urged the Journal Sentinel not to name Harris in connection with Divine Momentum and declined to be interviewed after the newspaper said it would not withhold Harris’ name from this story.

Though Kim declined to confirm Harris’ involvement in the company, she did use Harris’ name several times while discussing decisions made by the company — and even in a February email to the Journal Sentinel.

In the email, Kim asked “that you do not mention his involvement until a later date, in which even Devin himself can sit with you for an exclusive interview to finally let the ‘cat out of the bag’ on who’s behind Divine Momentum Real Estate and why.”

Harris, through Kim, declined to be interviewed.

In earlier interviews, Kim said she was “trying to protect the privacy of tenants” by keeping Harris’ role secret. She argued some tenants would stop paying rent if they knew their home or apartment was owned by a multimillionaire.

The “ultimate goal (of Divine Momentum) was philanthropic in nature,” Kim said. “It was more about revitalizing the community” than making money.

The company, however, was organized as a for-profit venture.

“Obviously every company wants to make money,” Kim said.

A dispute develops

Ridley said that when Harris decided to launch the venture, Harris financed the purchase of the properties and Ridley managed the rental units with the help of an uncle.

A look at problem properties Rick Wood As of mid-April, about a dozen homes owned by Divine Momentum LLC were subject to monthly reinspections by the city’s Department of Neighborhood Services. That designation is reserved for properties with repeated violations that do not get repaired in a timely manner. Photo Gallery: 12 Divine Momentum homes under reinspection

Kathy Peters said she sold the properties to Divine Momentum in May 2012 because the company offered a good price — about $600,000 — and agreed to buy the properties without inspecting each one. The properties, many with low-income tenants, had been managed by her husband, Joseph Peters, who died in 2011.

Many of the properties needed repairs at the time of the sale.

“It is a very, very difficult business,” Graig Goldman, a Realtor who represented Peters in the sale, said of being a landlord. “You may have humanistic goals but it’s very difficult, very difficult.

“You have to be tough or have unlimited funds, or you will be eaten alive.”

In the July letter to the city asking that the fines be waived, Kim described the homes owned by the company as “highly distressed properties” and said the company’s goal was to fix them and “offer lower-income families in the city safe and affordable housing.”

As of last July, Divine Momentum spent $221,475 on repairs and fines, Kim told the city.

Ridley did not have an ownership interest in the company and was paid $6,000 a month, according to Ridley and Kim. That arrangement broke down, with each side blaming the other for the problems.

“At first, things were running smoothly — Mr. Ridley was responsive to tenant requests and working with a team to fix up the homes,” Kim wrote in the July letter. “Rents were being collected and (city) work orders were addressed in a timely manner.”

Things changed in September 2013 when it was learned that “unbeknownst to the owner, Mr. Ridley stopped working all together, but continued to collect his salary all while misleading the owner into believing everything was on track,” Kim wrote. The letter alleged that “the owner was experiencing massive fraud at the hands of Mr. Ridley.”

Kim said Ridley ignored notices of building code violations and court dates. She said Ridley was fired in 2014.

Ridley denied Kim’s allegations and said he quit the company in March 2014.


In June 2014, Divine Momentum sued to have Ridley evicted from a home on Grantosa Drive that he rented from the company. Ridley agreed to move out, but objected to having to pay back rent.

During the proceeding, Ridley said he stopped paying rent because Divine Momentum owed him more than $30,000 in back pay. Ridley was ordered to pay a $1,878 judgment. He has not done so.

Ridley said he generally reported directly to Harris and that the basketball star personally approved many of his expenditures to buy materials to fix properties.

“He didn’t mind fixing the properties,” Ridley said. “We were spending $5,000 to $7,000 a month to fix the properties.”

Near the end of his tenure, Ridley said the company told him to stop making repairs unless the project was urgently needed for the welfare or safety of the tenant.

He said he was told at the time that the properties were about to be sold.

The fines would make any sale difficult, because the city placed liens on all of Divine Momentum’s properties, clouding the titles.

A lien is a public notice that a creditor is owed money. Title companies insist that the debt be paid before they issue title insurance. If the debt is not paid, it remains with the property — making it difficult to sell.

Ridley said he and Harris haven’t spoken since the Divine Momentum fiasco.

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