Ex-cops staged fake raid to extort $61m from businessman, prosecutors allege

A team of mercenaries, all former law enforcement or military, allegedly held a man and his family in their home under threat of violence and deportation. Photo / Kevin Liles, the Washington Post

Four mercenaries, including two former Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies, were indicted for a sham raid that violently extorted a man out of US$37 million ($61m) after being hired by his former business partner in China.

United States federal prosecutors described in their 32-page indictment how the team of mercenaries, all former law enforcement or military, allegedly held a man and his family in their home under threat of violence and deportation.

The aim was to get him to sign away millions of dollars to his ex-partner. The men also threatened to separate the parents from their two children.

“The defendants in this case allegedly believed they could carry out vigilante justice by using official police powers to enter the home of vulnerable victims and extorting them out of millions of dollars,” Akil Davis, who leads the Los Angeles FBI field office, wrote.

The four men – former LASD deputy Steven Arthur Lankford, 68, former LASD deputy Glen Louis Cozart, 63, former British soldier Max Samuel Bennett Turbett, 39, of Australia, and former Australian soldier Matthew Phillip Hart, 41, – face charges of conspiracy to commit extortion, attempted extortion, conspiracy against rights and deprivation of rights.

The woman who allegedly hired the team is not named in the indictment but is described as a Chinese national with homes in China and France. Her former business partner lives in Irvine, California, with his wife and two sons.

The two former business partners were shareholders in two Chinese chemical companies, according to prosecutors. In about 2008, rubber chemical manufacturer Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology purchased the assets of the two companies.

The man and his former business partner had an “ongoing business dispute regarding the ownership of their shares in Jiangsu Sinorgchem” that had been the subject of three civil lawsuits in China and one in Atlanta that was pending in 2019, prosecutors wrote.

One of the documents the man was forced to sign was a settlement agreement to “solve the dispute over the equity entrustment of the shares of” Jiangsu Sinorgchem, prosecutors wrote. The document transferred his Sinorgchem shares to the woman and US$36,972,386.51 in cash with a deal to withdraw the pending lawsuits.

The woman emailed Turbett on December 16, 2018, because she was tired of paying lawyers after years of litigation. She wrote that this was a “very big case” and that if Turbett helped her fix this then “we both can retire”, according to the indictment.

Each man had their role, prosecutors wrote: Turbett’s Australia-based private investigation business accepted the job with a promise of a cut of the assets recovered.

He contracted out the local investigation work to Cozart and tasked Cozart with putting together a team.

They hired Lankford to “use the power of his LASD badge and status as a law enforcement officer to intimidate and coerce the subject into complying”, according to prosecutors. Hart was extra security.

Lankford’s badge and access made him a crucial part of the team, according to the document. He left LASD in 2017 after about 33 years as a homicide detective but returned on contract through 2020.

Lankford and Cozart approached their target as he left his home at about 8.30am on June 17, 2019, prosecutors said. Cozart identified himself as an immigration official and Lankford showed the victim his LASD badge while identifying himself as a detective. The victim ushered the man inside his home. His wife and two sons were also home.

Lankford quickly took the victim’s phone without his permission, prosecutors wrote. Lankford and Hart searched the house and found the man’s wife still wearing her pyjamas in the third-floor bedroom playing with their 4-year-old son, prosecutors wrote. They also took her cellphone.

Sitting at his own kitchen table, the man asked for a lawyer, to which Lankford responded “not right now”. Cozart told the man that he and his wife would be deported and separated from their children unless he signed documents they presented, prosecutors wrote.

When the father ran towards the stairs, Hart grabbed the man so hard he ripped his shirt, slammed him against the wall and choked the man. “Don’t [mess] with me. I’m not the police,” Hart allegedly said.

The father grabbed a knife and allegedly screamed: “if you aren’t police, why are you in my house?”

Turbett yelled for Lankford for help. Lankford came and threatened the man with arrest for pulling the knife, prosecutors wrote. Lankford pulled out a pair of handcuffs.

After roughly two and a half hours of threats and violence, the man began to review the paperwork. At 11am, he signed, according to the indictment. After they left, the man called law enforcement.

“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,” US Attorney Martin Estrada said.

The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department has a reputation for ethical breaches of its deputies, as detailed in a 2021 investigation by news outlet Knock LA into allegations of gangs of deputies at the agency that was corroborated by reporting from mainstream outlets.

If convicted, prosecutors said, the four men could face a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each extortion count and up to 10 years in federal prison for the other counts.