Federal prosecutors charge ex-Los Angeles County deputies in sham raid and $37M extortion
LOS ANGELES — Two former Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and two former foreign military personnel have been charged with threatening a Chinese national and his family with violence and deportation during a mock raid on his Orange County home five years ago, federal prosecutors said Monday.
The four men also sought $37 million and the rights to the man’s business, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles said. Authorities did not release the businessman’s name.
The men were arraigned Monday on charges of conspiracy to commit extortion, attempted extortion, conspiracy to commit rights and deprivation of rights under the law. All have pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors say the group drove to the victim’s Irvine home on June 17, 2019, forced him, his wife and their two children into a room for hours, took their phones and threatened to deport him if he didn’t comply. Authorities say the man is a legal permanent resident.
The men pushed the businessman against a wall and strangled him, prosecutors said. Fearing for his own safety and that of his family, he signed documents relinquishing his multimillion-dollar stake 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 has not been charged, financed the phony 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 — looked up information about 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 home 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 phone number listed for Lankford, but he did not respond.
Federal prosecutors also have charged Glen Louis Cozart, 63, of Upland, who was also a sheriff’s deputy. The AP left a phone message for Cozart, but he did not immediately respond.
Lankford was hired by Cozart, who in turn was hired by Max Samuel Bennett Turbett, a 39-year-old British citizen and former member of the British military who is also facing charges. Prosecutors said Turbett was hired by the Chinese businesswoman who financed the fake raid. Lawyers for Cozart and Turbett did not immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking comment Monday.
Matthew Phillip Hart, 41, an Australian citizen and former member of the Australian military, is also charged in the case. Hart’s lawyer, 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 U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. “It is unacceptable and a serious violation of civil rights 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 the four men are found guilty, they each face a prison sentence of up to 20 years.