US

Former Officers Allegedly Staged Raid To Extort $37,000,000

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Mariane Angela News Reporter
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Four former law enforcement and military officers allegedly staged a fake raid on a California businessman’s home, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California announced Monday.

The former officers allegedly forcibly coerced a businessman to relinquish his multimillion-dollar business interests, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. This elaborate scheme was allegedly orchestrated in 2019 at the behest of the victim’s business partner, a wealthy Chinese national referred to only as “unindicted co-conspirator 1.”

The accused, identified as Steven Arthur Lankford, Glen Louis Cozart, Max Samuel Bennett Turbett and Matthew Phillip Hart, allegedly posed as law enforcement officers to execute the raid in Irvine, California. During the intrusion, they allegedly physically assaulted the businessman and forced him and his family into one room, seized their communication devices and restricted their movement for hours. (RELATED: REPORT: Police Arrest Middle School Cop Who Coached Soccer For Molesting 14-Year-Old At School Dance)

Under duress, the businessman was compelled to transfer his assets to the assailants, $36,972,386 in cash as well as lucrative shares in Jiangsu Sinorgchem. Lankford, a retired deputy from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, along with Cozart, also a former deputy, were pivotal in the orchestration of the raid, the release stated. Turbett, a former member of the British military, and Hart, a former Australian military officer, flew in from Australia to participate.

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 29: The Justice Department seal is seen on the lectern during a Hate Crimes Subcommittee summit on June 29, 2017 in Washington, DC. The meeting gave stakeholders the opportunity to offer imput to the committee before it makes its recommendations to the attorney general on what the Department of Justice can do to improve reporting, investigation and prosecution of hate crimes. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 29: The Justice Department seal is seen on the lectern during a Hate Crimes Subcommittee summit on June 29, 2017 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

Lankford allegedly utilized his access to law enforcement databases to gather information on the victim, a clear violation of department policy. The U.S. Attorney’s statement highlighted the gravity of the abuse. “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.”

The charged the defendants face include conspiracy to commit extortion, attempted extortion, conspiracy against rights and deprivation of rights under color of law, according to the news release. They could receive a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each of the extortion-related count and up to 10 years for each count of rights deprivation if convicted.