Federal prosecutors charge ex-Los Angeles County deputies in sham raid and $37M extortion

Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and two former foreign military officials have been charged with threatening a Chinese national and his family with violence and deportation during a sham raid at his Orange County home five years ago, federal prosecutors said Monday.

The four men also demanded $37 million and the rights to the man’s business, according to the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles. Authorities have not released the businessman’s name.

The men were arraigned Monday on charges of conspiracy to commit extortion, attempted extortion, conspiracy against rights, and deprivation of rights under color of law. All pleaded not guilty.

Prosecutors said the group drove to the victim’s house in Irvine on June 17, 2019, and forced him, his wife and their two children into a room for hours, took their phones, and threatened to deport him unless he complied with their demands. Authorities said the man is a legal permanent resident.

The men slammed the businessman against a wall and choked him, prosecutors said. Fearing for his and his family’s safety, he signed documents relinquishing his multimillion-dollar interest in Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology Co. Ltd., a China-based company that makes rubber chemicals.

Federal prosecutors said the man’s business partner, a Chinese woman who was not indicted, financed the bogus raid. The two had been embroiled in legal disputes over the company in the United States and China for more than a decade, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said one of the men charged, Steven Arthur Lankford — who retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 2020 — searched for information on the victim in a national database using a terminal at the sheriff’s department. They said Lankford, 68, drove the other three men to the victim’s house in an unmarked sheriff’s department vehicle, flashed his badge and identified himself as a police officer.

Lankford’s attorney, Richard Steingard, declined to comment. The Associated Press left a message Monday at a telephone number listed for Lankford, but he did not respond.

Federal prosecutors also charged Glen Louis Cozart, 63, of Upland, who also used to be a sheriff’s deputy. The AP left a phone message for Cozart, but he didn’t immediately respond. His attorney also didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Monday.

Lankford was hired by Cozart, who in turn was hired by Max Samuel Bennett Turbett, a 39-year-old U.K. citizen and former member of the British military who also faces charges. Prosecutors said Turbett was hired by the Chinese businesswoman who financed the bogus raid. Turbett won’t contest his extradition and is traveling to the United States for the trial, his attorney said.

“We are disappointed that five years after the incident in question and days before the statute of limitations expired, the United States Attorney chose to bring these charges based on the word of an unreliable witness motivated by financial gain,” Craig Wilke, Turbett’s attorney, said in a statement to the AP.

He added: “He looks forward to answering these unfounded charges at trial in this case.”

Matthew Phillip Hart, 41, an Australian citizen and former member of the Australian military, is also charged in the case. Hart’s attorney, Anthony Solis, declined to comment.

“It is critical that we hold public officials, including law enforcement officers, to the same standards as the rest of us,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “It is unacceptable and a serious civil rights violation for a sworn police officer to take the law into his own hands and abuse the authority of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.”

If convicted, the four men could each face up to 20 years in federal prison.