Federal officials say that four former police and military officers faked an arrest at the home of a California businessman in 2019 and forced him to sign away tens of millions of dollars worth of business rights.
The suspects broke into the businessman’s home in Irvine and beat him up at the request of the victim’s business partner, who paid for the “bogus raid,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California said in a statement Monday.
Prosecutors say the four fake officers, who pretended to be real police officers, forced the man to sign papers giving up his multimillion-dollar stake in Jiangsu Sinorgchem, a Chinese company that makes rubber chemicals. The victim and his business partner had been fighting about this for years.
During the raid, the man’s wife and two kids were at home. The victim and his business partner, a woman named only as “wealthy Chinese national” and an unindicted co-conspirator 1, were not named.
One count of conspiracy to commit extortion, one count of attempted extortion, one count of conspiracy against rights, and one count of deprivation of rights under color of law were added to the original indictment, according to the office. The people charged are Steven Arthur Lankford, 68, of Canyon Country, California; Glen Louis Cozart, 63, of Upland, California; Max Samuel Bennett Turbett, 39, of Australia, who is a citizen of the United Kingdom; and Matthew Phillip Hart, 41, of Australia.
According to the prosecutors, Lankford is a former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who owns a process service business in Santa Clarita. Cozart is also a former county sheriff’s deputy who owns a private investigation and security services business. Turbett is a former member of the British military who owns a private investigation and asset recovery business, and Hart is a former member of the Australian military who owns a management service business.
The four suspects are set to be tried on Monday afternoon. Their lawyers could not be reached right away for comment.
In the statement, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said, “It is very important that we hold public officials, including police officers, to the same standards as the rest of us.” “For a sworn police officer to break the law and abuse the power of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department is unfair and a serious violation of civil rights.”
Prosecutors say that if found guilty, each defendant could face up to 20 years in federal prison for extortion and up to 10 years in federal prison for each count of denial of rights.
Prosecutors say that the victim and his business partner fought for years over who owned the rubber chemical producer. Lawyers for the two sides said the differences led to at least three lawsuits in China and one in Atlanta.
The unindicted co-conspirator is said to have called Turbett in December 2018 to offer assistance with a business disagreement. Prosecutors say she told Turbett that the long and expensive court case wasn’t “the smart way” to handle her case and asked him to find a different “solution to finish the problem.” Police say she told Turbett that if he helped her, “we can both retire.”
According to prosecutors, Turbett and the unindicted co-conspirator wrote fake settlement papers that asked victim 1 to give the unindicted co-conspirator assets like $36,972,386 in cash and valuable shares in Jiangsu Sinorgchem.
That move set off a series of events that led to the fake raid on June 17, 2019. Authorities say that before that, Turbett hired Cozart to find Victim 1 and put together a group to get Victim 1 to sign the settlement deals.
Lankford, who was working as a sheriff’s officer at the time, was then hired by Cozart. She went against department policy and searched the National Crime Information Center database for victim 1’s name and date of birth. Lawyers for the government said that people should not use police records for personal reasons.
Police say Turbett and Hart flew from Australia to Los Angeles and met with Cozart and Lankford to plan the fake raid.
Police say that during the fake raid, the suspects locked the victim and his family in a room. Authorities said they took away their phones and stopped them from leaving for hours. According to investigators, the businessman was also choked, slammed into a wall, and told that he and his wife could be deported and that they might have to live apart from their 4-year-old son for good.
The victim then signed the payment papers, according to the police. Prosecutors say that after the defendants left, the victim called the Irvine police, even though they told him not to.
Prosecutors say Lankford lied to police when he said he was at the businessman’s house for a legal police purpose that the businessman gave permission for everyone to be there and that no force was used.
The lawyers who forced the businessman to sign the deal had all been paid by November 2019, according to the government.
Authorities say the person who isn’t being charged with a crime paid Turbett’s business about $419,813 and thanked him via email for a “very good job.”
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