The Mammoth Tax Bill Owed by the Obscure Owner of a Salem Computer Repair Shop Defies Belief as Well as Payment

By Penny Rosenberg
September 2, 2026

According to the Oregon Department of Revenue, the biggest tax deadbeat in the state is 32, owns a modest computer repair shop in downtown Salem, and rents a suburban tract home valued at $584,000. This Oregonian of apparently limited wealth somehow owes state government more than $21 million.

Edwin Cordova, 32, has been married for 10 years and, according to his wife’s social media feed, is the dad of two adorable children who go to pumpkin patches and wear matching outfits in family photos. The social posts reveal not a life lived large but one that is solidly middle class.

And yet, based on what the Revenue Department says he owes, Cordova earned at least $100 million in income in 2022, and now owes the state $21 million ($21,061,989.80 to be exact).

Each year for the past three, the Revenue Department has listed the biggest tax dodgers in Oregon, updated almost daily. And while some of those on the list run significant, visible businesses, such as Mark Hemstreet, who has owned and operated the troubled Shilo Inns chain and owes the state $6.4 million, or Troy H. Duzon, a cannabis entrepreneur who owes $5.2 million, Cordova labors in near-total obscurity.

Cordova’s shop, Reboot Computers, operates from a narrow storefront in an aging strip mall near a T-Mobile shop and catty-corner to a Ross Dress for Less. Cordova, who also goes by Edwin Cordova Gutierrez, bought the business about nine years ago.

Because of confidentiality laws, a Department of Revenue spokesman said he could shed no light as to how Cordova came into such a taxable windfall.

And in a brief interview with OJP, Cordova declined to say how he made his money.

Reached at home, Cordova opened the front door just a crack. A number of vehicles were parked out front, but nothing befitting a $100 million income.

Cordova did tell the OJP reporter he was aware he was in trouble with the Oregon Department of Revenue.

“If you think I owe [the state of] Oregon a lot, I owe the IRS a lot more,” he said. (He does; the feds placed a $35.9 million lien on Cordova in 2024). He said he has “people” working with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service and Oregon tax officials. At the same time, he would say nothing about how he had earned his millions.

“I don’t know how much I can disclose,” Cordova said before shutting the door abruptly. He did not reply to a follow-up email sent to the store.

OJP contacted Reboot’s founder and former owner, James Malkin, now living in New Hampshire. Malkin said he hired Cordova around 2015 and came to see him as a natural successor. He spoke Spanish, so he could serve a growing market in Salem—and he had something Malkin never did: a knack for salesmanship, Malkin said in a phone interview.

At the same time, he acknowledged that the likelihood of earning big money from the store was nil.

“No way. No way. No way,” Malkin said, adding that in his best year of running the repair shop, his total revenues were about $250,000. He netted far less.

Since 2023, Oregon has been naming and shaming people who do not pay their taxes on time. No state is more dependent on income taxes than Oregon, so collecting taxes in a timely fashion and in full is crucial to financing the services Oregonians expect from their government.

And as federal budget cuts take hold, collecting taxes owed will be more important than ever. But as Cordova’s case shows, it can require more than just publishing a list of deadbeats to make the money flow.

In passing Senate Bill 523 in 2017, Oregon joined 23 other states that publicly post tax delinquents’ names online, though they operate differently. Colorado, for example, sets its trigger point at $20,000 owed. Wyoming publishes the name of every person and entity that owes it any amount no matter how small. Its most current list highlights a taxpayer who owes $8.58.

Oregon lets the public flogging begin once a taxpayer owes $50,000.

Has the program produced? Collection numbers are up, but the Oregon Department of Revenue is noncommittal on the question of how much the list has contributed. In the year before the list went live, the state collected $211 million in unpaid taxes. Last year, it collected $267 million.

“We can say with confidence that many taxpayers have contacted us to resolve their debts in response to being notified that their debt has been published on the list,” DOR spokesman Robin Maxey said by email. But as “only one tool in our toolbox,” it’s impossible to assign how much credit the list deserves.

Maxey added that among the Oregon taxes collected each year, less than 4% is considered “severely past due,” which is defined as being 60 days past the due date.

The state does occasionally file criminal charges against nonpayers for tax evasion. Earlier this year, the state charged Salem pizzeria owner Michael Richard Pfohl with 10 counts of tax evasion. Those charges were dropped after he agreed to pay the state the $90,232 he owed and a criminal fine of $6,000.

A spokesperson for the Oregon Attorney General’s Office would not comment about whether Cordova was being eyed for prosecution.

But the big mystery, how this 32-year-old earned so many millions in one year, remains unsolved. Crypto? Investing in high-flying equities? Inheritance? Devin Brown, who owns Kingdom City Coffeehouse a couple of doors down from Cordova’s store, can’t even imagine it.

“I have no idea,” Brown said, adding, “He’s one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met.”