A former police deputy in California has been charged with carrying out a cruel extortion scheme on behalf of a Chinese businesswoman that involved raiding the home of her former business partner.
Retired Los Angeles deputy Steven A. Lankford was still working part time when he orchestrated a fake immigration raid to intimidate the victim, a Chinese immigrant and legal U.S. resident, with phony threats of deportation.
Lankford and three others raided the victim's home and coerced him into signing away his business rights to the tune of $37 million.
The four co-conspirators were paid $400,000 to carry out the 2019 raid on behalf of an unnamed businesswoman from China.
“At some point, this wealthy Chinese national decided to hire these mercenaries to go carry out what they did," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said.
"The goal was to get this person to sign a contract to give away his business rights. That’s what he ended up doing, but he did it by force, intimidation and extortion," Estrada said.
Two of the men charged, 68-year-old Steven Lankford and 63-year-old Glen Louis Cozart, are former LA County Sheriff's deputies. Also charged were a former British solider, 39-year-old Max Samuel Bennett Turbett, and a 41-year-old former Australian soldier, Matthew Philli.
The indictment charges the four co-conspirators with conspiracy against rights, conspiracy to commit extortion, attempted extortion, and deprivation of rights under color of law.
According to prosecutors, Lankford used his authority as a sheriff's deputy to plan and execute the raid. Lankford also tried to shut down a probe into the raid when the victim reported it to police.
“He used his badge to gain entry into the home. He used his authority as a Sheriff’s deputy to intimidate the family and to threaten the businessman with deportation," Estrada said.
The victim's wife and two sons were home during the raid, which lasted about two and a half hours. They threatened to separate the victim from his family if he did not agree to their demands.
“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, said.
