On Monday, August 12, federal prosecutors in the United States announced charges against four former law enforcement officers and military personnel. They are accused of using threats in 2019 to extort nearly $37 million from a Chinese citizen residing in Irvine, California, and forcing him to surrender ownership of a Chinese company.
According to the Los Angeles prosecutor’s office, on June 17, 2019, the four suspects entered the victim’s home by posing as legitimate law enforcement officers and brandishing badges. They detained the victim, his wife, and their two sons (ages 21 and 4) for several hours. During this time, the victim was thrown against a wall, choked, and threatened with deportation.
The victim was coerced into signing an agreement relinquishing his stake in a Chinese company—Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology Co., a rubber chemical manufacturer headquartered in China. The indictment filed on August 1 charges two former officers—68-year-old Steven Arthur Lankford and 63-year-old Glen Louis Cozart—with conspiracy to commit extortion, attempted extortion, conspiracy to violate rights, and deprivation of rights under the color of law.
Lankford served as a Los Angeles County police officer from around 1984 until his retirement as a homicide detective in March 2017. From July 2017 to April 2020, he worked as a “rehire” or “reserve” officer for the department.
Cozart, a former officer at the Temple City Police Department in California, was arrested in 1992 for charges of evidence tampering and submitting false reports and was subsequently dismissed from his position.
Also charged are 39-year-old British citizen Max Samuel Bennett Turbett, a former British soldier, and 41-year-old Australian citizen Matthew Phillip Hart, a former Australian soldier. If convicted, the four defendants could face up to 20 years in federal prison.
Federal prosecutor Martin Estrada stated at a press conference on Monday, August 12, that this was not Lankford’s first time facing charges, but he was unaware of any previous criminal accusations against him. Lankford has been relieved of his duties as a reserve officer.
Estrada stated in a release, “For a sworn officer to commit such acts of abuse of power against citizens is unacceptable and a serious violation of civil rights.”
Federal authorities indicated in a press release that an unnamed Chinese woman was the mastermind behind the scenes (unindicted co-conspirator). The investigation, ongoing for five years, did not reveal her identity.
The wealthy Chinese woman is reported to be a former business partner of the victim. There were legal disputes over ownership interests between the two.
The commercial dispute in China led to at least three lawsuits and one in Atlanta, according to the U.S. prosecutor’s office. In a court document in October 2013, the Chinese authorities allegedly issued a “red notice” for the victim.
The victim, as per the prosecutors, denied the allegations that the “red notice” was related to the commercial dispute. The Chinese woman contacted Turbett, who owned a private investigation and asset recovery business in Australia, in December 2018 to help locate and recover the victim’s assets.
According to the indictment, the Chinese businesswoman indicated that lengthy and costly litigation was not the “wise way” to resolve the dispute with the victim and asked Turbett to find an alternative “solution.”
Turbett and the Chinese woman purportedly drafted a so-called “settlement agreement” in June 2019, pressuring the victim to transfer assets, including nearly $37 million in cash and profitable business shares, to her.
From then on, Turbett employed Cozart, who owned a private investigation and security services company in San Bernardino County, to locate the victim. Cozart enlisted Lankford, who violated department policies by using the sheriff’s office equipment to search for the victim’s name and birthdate.
Following Turbett and Hart’s arrival from Australia to Los Angeles, they met with Cozart and Lankford. On the day of the incident, Lankford drove an unmarked police car with the other three defendants to the victim’s home.
The defendants received their payment before November 2019, as indicated in the indictment. The unindicted mastermind allegedly paid approximately $420,000 to Turbett’s company before November 2019. She also sent emails to Turbett expressing gratitude for his work.
Information released by the U.S. Department of Justice and prosecutors indicated that this case involved two shareholders of Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology Co. (the mastermind being a Chinese woman, and the victim being a Chinese man). Based on this information and previous reports on the company’s commercial disputes by Chinese media, the case seems related to shareholders Liu Jing and Wang Hao of Sinorgchem Technology Co.
Several Chinese media outlets reported that in 2004, Liu Jing, under the alias Jin Yueyi, ascended to become the Chairman holding 51% of the shares of Sinorgchem Technology Co., a giant in the rubber chemical industry, after falsely claiming to be the illegitimate daughter of a leading figure in the Chinese Communist Party’s disciplinary committee. Her assets surged to 2 billion RMB in just four years, and she possessed multiple IDs and household registrations. In 2009, Liu Jing was criminally detained by the police in Nanjing for alleged “stock fraud.”
In 2011, Liu Jing sued her former partner, Wang Hao, Chairman of Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology Co., to recover the shares held on behalf of the company. Liu Jing eventually lost the lawsuit due to lack of evidence.
Wang Hao left for the United States at the end of 2008 and has since stayed there. In 2012, Chinese authorities issued a criminal detention warrant against Wang Hao on suspicions of duty-related crimes, but since he was overseas, he remained a “fugitive under criminal detention.”
According to the China Business News in July 2022, Liu Jing and longtime business rival Wang Hao allegedly reached a “settlement agreement” in the United States in June 2019, ending a decade-long commercial dispute. The conflict between the two had escalated from civil litigation into mutual criminal accusations. Business records from July 2021 show that Wang Hao withdrew from the “Sinorgchem” enterprise director list, while Liu Jing appeared as a shareholder.