Federal prosecutors alleged a now-retired homicide detective from Sand Canyon was part of a group hired to bully an Irvine man into signing away his multimillion-dollar interest in a company he shared with a Chinese national accused of financing the raid.
A group of four ex-law enforcement and ex-military officers charged Monday in the “alleged sham raid” included Steven Arthur Lankford, a 68-year-old retired detective who also has been recognized for his work on cold cases.
Unusual suspects
The Department of Justice alleged Monday that Lankford and three others “acted as a sham law enforcement team that entered an Irvine man’s home and threatened him and his family with violence and deportation unless he turned over nearly $37 million and signed away his rights in a business,” according to the release.
“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,” said Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office. “The FBI will not tolerate civil rights violations by anyone who takes the law into their own hands for personal gain or otherwise.”
Named as Lankford’s accomplices in the federal indictment were: Glen Louis Cozart, 63, of Upland; Max Samuel Bennett Turbett, 39, of Australia, a United Kingdom citizen and former member of the British military who owns an Australia-based private investigation and asset recovery business; and Matthew Phillip Hart, 41, of Australia, an Australian citizen and former member of the Australian military who owns an Australia-based risk management services business
Legal dispute
The alleged victim, an Irvine businessman whose identity has not been released, had an ongoing business dispute with an unindicted co-conspirator, a wealthy Chinese national, regarding their respective ownership interests in Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology Co. Ltd., a China-based rubber chemical manufacturer, according to the federal indictment.
Their dispute led to at least three lawsuits in China and one in Atlanta, and in October 2013 the Chinese national alleged in a civil court filing that China had issued a “red notice” for Victim 1, which Victim 1 understood was linked to his business dispute with the unindicted co-conspirator.
A “red notice,” according to Interpol, is essentially an international alert for a person who is wanted, but it’s not the same as an arrest warrant.
“In December 2018, the unindicted co-conspirator allegedly contacted Turbett to help locate and recover assets from the victim,” according to the DOJ, which claims the woman said “long and costly litigation had not been ‘the smart way’ to handle her dispute.”
The unindicted co-conspirator, identified only as a woman, asked Turbett to find a different “solution to finish the problem” that would make them both rich, according to the DOJ.
Alleged revenge plot
In June 2019, a settlement agreement was drafted that called for the victim to transfer assets, including nearly $37 million in cash and shares in Jiangsu Sinorgchem, to the unindicted co-conspirator.
Federal investigators believed Turbett hired Cozart to assemble a team to find the victim and obtain his signature on the settlement agreements.
Cozart, in turn, hired Lankford, then an L.A. County Sheriff’s Department deputy, who tracked down the victim’s name and date of birth in the National Crime Information Center database using his Justice Data Interface Controller terminal at LASD, in violation of LASD policy that law enforcement databases only be used for law enforcement purposes and not for personal use, according to the release.
“Turbett and Hart flew from Australia to Los Angeles, where they met with Cozart and Lankford to discuss plans for the sham raid,” according to the news release.
“On June 17, 2019, Lankford – in violation of LASD policy – drove an unmarked LASD vehicle to Victim 1’s home with Cozart, Hart and Turbett,” the superseding indictment alleges.
The allegations
Lankford and Cozart then approached the victim outside his home, according to the federal release. Lankford allegedly identified himself as a police officer and showed his badge, while Cozart falsely identified himself as an “Immigration” officer, the complaint alleges.
While pretending to be law enforcement officials, Lankford and Cozart allegedly entered the home, where they forced the victim, his wife and their two children into a room, took their phones and prevented them from leaving for hours.
The homeowner was slammed against a wall and choked, the superseding indictment states. Defendants allegedly also threatened to deport the man and his wife and permanently separate them from their 4-year-old son unless the victim complied with their demands to sign the paperwork.
“Fearing for his and his family’s safety, the superseding indictment alleges that (the victim) ultimately signed the documents, thereby relinquishing his multimillion-dollar interest in Jiangsu Sinorgchem,” according to the news release.
Aftermath
Despite alleged threats from Lankford that the victim would be arrested and deported if he reported the incident, the victim immediately contacted the Irvine Police Department after the defendants left his home, according to DOJ officials.
When contacted by the Irvine Police Department, Lankford lied, according to the DOJ complaint, and “falsely claimed that he had been at (victim’s) home for a legitimate law enforcement purpose, that (the victim) consented to all parties being in his home, and no force was used.”
The statement from federal prosecutors also notes that by November 2019, “all the defendants had been paid for their efforts,” and the to-date unindicted co-conspirator paid Turbett’s company approximately $419,813 for services rendered.
The indictment was filed Monday. The suspects’ next court date was not immediately available in federal records online.
If convicted, the defendants would face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison for each extortion-related count and up to 10 years in federal prison for each deprivation of rights-related count, according to the DOJ.
Local news
Prior to the allegations, Lankford was one of two detectives recognized for his work in a cold-case unit that previously re-investigated unsolved murders from the county’s past.
Detective John Paillet was awarded a Sheriff’s Star Scroll, while Lankford was awarded a Quality of Service Award, in a ceremony inside the office of then-Sheriff Jim McDonnell.
The detectives were acknowledged for their roles in solving the 1978 robbery, kidnapping, rape and murder case of victim Leslie Long, a 20-year-old woman who worked at a Palmdale gas station.
In January 2021, the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station received a report that a man — later identified as Juan Luis Barahona-Ortega — had crashed a red Toyota Tacoma truck through the perimeter of the gated community of MacMillan Ranch.
Initial reports indicated that Barahona-Ortega had a gun, and neighbors immediately alerted Lankford and his son-in-law, who lived nearby.
Lankford shot Barahona-Ortega twice in the chest, but he survived his injuries. Officials have not said why the man was on the property.
No charges were filed against Barahona-Ortega or Lankford in the shooting, according to the DA’s office.
Lankford also runs a Santa Clarita process-service company, Apollo Process Server.
