Using data from Zillow, the Rent Brigade estimates that there were more than 5,000 likely cases of rent gouging between Jan. 7 and March 16. While calculating the exact number of landlords involved in those cases is difficult because of LLCs and ownership structure, they found 3,553 unique addresses associated with the rent-gouged listings. Volunteers cross-referenced existing registries and ownership data to track down the owners of these listings, which are often nested in LLCs with nondescript titles. What the group found was a combination of corporate mega-landlords and real estate tycoons who had in many cases lobbied against tenant protections in Los Angeles and California. Some had also paid thousands to help elect the very officials tasked with enforcing anti-price-gouging laws.