The U.S. Attorney General’s Office in Boston announced today that it has reached a settlement agreement with Chicopee landlord Salazar Dos Santos.

Mr. Dos Santos allegedly violated the Fair Housing Act by sexually harassing female tenants for at least 11 years.

To settle the case without trial, he has agreed to pay a total of $425,000 to women who were allegedly subjected to his acts along with an additional civil penalty of $25,000.

According to the AG’s press release:

The United States’ lawsuit alleged that, from 2008 through 2019, Dos Santos subjected multiple female tenants to unwelcome sexual contact, which included coercing them to engage in sex acts, physically sexually assaulting them, exposing himself and locking them in his office to sexually assault them. The lawsuit asserted that Dos Santos implicitly offered to provide relief from rental payment obligations in exchange for engaging in sexual acts with him, and threatened tenants who resisted or objected to his unwelcome sexual harassment. It is further alleged that some victims were sexually harassed dozens of times for months (one tenant on more than 40 occasions), and that Dos Santos evicted some tenants after they refused his advances.