4 former police officers are accused of conducting a fake raid to extort nearly $37 million from a California man

Four former police and military officials are accused of conducting a fake raid on the home of a California businessman in 2019 and forcing him to give up rights to his company worth tens of millions of dollars, federal prosecutors said.

The defendants entered the businessman's home in Irvine and physically attacked him at the behest of a business partner of the victim who financed the “fake robbery,” the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said on Monday.

The four fake officers – pretending it was a legitimate police operation – forced the man to sign paperwork giving up his multimillion-dollar stake in Jiangsu Sinorgchem, a Chinese rubber chemicals manufacturer. The victim and his business partner had been feuding over the stake for years, prosecutors said.

The man's wife and two children were at home during the raid. The victim was not identified by name, nor was his business partner, a woman identified only as unindicted co-conspirator 1, a “wealthy Chinese national,” the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

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 British citizen, and Matthew Phillip Hart, 41, of Australia, are charged in an amended indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, one count of attempted extortion, one count of conspiracy to violate rights and one count of deprivation of rights under cover of law, the office said.

Lankford is a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy who resigned from the agency in 2020 and owns a process services firm based in Santa Clarita; Cozart is also a former Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy and owns a private investigation and security services firm; Turbett is a former member of the British military and owns a private investigation and asset recovery firm and Hart is a former member of the Australian military and owns an administrative services firm, prosecutors said.

The arraignment of the four defendants is scheduled for Monday afternoon. Their lawyers were not immediately available for comment.

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

If convicted, the defendants face up to 20 years in federal prison for each count related to racketeering and up to 10 years in federal prison for each count related to deprivation of rights, prosecutors said.

According to prosecutors, the victim and his business partner had been arguing for years about their ownership of the rubber chemicals manufacturer. The disagreements led to at least three lawsuits in China and one in Atlanta, prosecutors said.

In December 2018, the unindicted co-conspirator allegedly contacted Turbett to ask him to help her with her business dispute. She said the lengthy and costly litigation was “not the smart way” to resolve their dispute and asked Turbett to find another “solution to end the problem,” prosecutors said. She promised Turbett that if he helped her, “we can both retire,” authorities said.

Turbett and the unindicted co-conspirator drafted alleged settlement agreements requiring Victim 1 to transfer assets – including approximately $36,972,386 in cash and lucrative stock in Jiangsu Sinorgchem – to the unindicted co-conspirator, prosecutors said.

This move set off a chain of events that led to the fake raid on June 17, 2019. Previously, prosecutors alleged, Turbett had hired Cozart to find Victim 1 and assemble a team to get Victim 1's signature on the settlement agreements.

Cozart, in turn, hired Lankford, then a deputy sheriff, who, contrary to departmental regulations, searched the National Crime Information Center's database for Victim 1's name and date of birth. Law enforcement databases may not be used for personal purposes, prosecutors said.

Turbett and Hart flew from Australia to Los Angeles, where they met with Cozart and Lankford to plan the fake raid, prosecutors said.

During the fake raid, the defendants forced the victim and his family into a room, authorities said. The defendants took their phones and prevented them from leaving the room for hours, prosecutors said. The businessman was also choked, thrown against a wall and threatened with the deportation of his wife and the possibility of permanent separation from their four-year-old son, prosecutors said.

The victim then signed the settlement agreements, authorities said. Although the victim was told not to contact police, he contacted Irvine police after the defendants left, prosecutors said.

Lankford falsely told police that he was at the businessman's home for legitimate law enforcement purposes, that the businessman consented to everyone involved being at his home and that no violence was used, prosecutors said.

By November 2019, all defendants had been paid for their efforts to force the businessman to sign the settlement, authorities said.

The unindicted co-conspirator paid Turbett's company about $419,813 and sent an email thanking him for the “very good work,” prosecutors said.