Four former law enforcement officers charged with $37 million extortion

Prosecutors are accusing four former military and law enforcement officers of carrying out an elaborate, fake raid on a California man’s home in 2019 to trick him into signing away his rights to a business deal worth tens of millions of dollars.

The victim, whose name is not listed in the indictment, shared the business, a China-based rubber chemicals maker called Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology Co. Ltd., with a “wealthy Chinese national,” prosecutors said. The two had been in a costly legal dispute over the company for years. That same unnamed Chinese national backed the sham raid and contacted one of the defendants, Max Samuel Bennett Turbett, with a plan to end the fight over the business, prosecutors alleged.

Turbett, 39, a UK citizen and former member of the British Army, along with three other men, now face charges of conspiracy to commit extortion, one count of attempted extortion, one count of conspiracy against rights and one count of deprivation of rights under colour of law.

Other defendants include:

• Steven Arthur Lankford, 68, a retired Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy who left the department in 2020. Federal prosecutors said he now owns a process services company based in Santa Clarita, California.
• Glen Louis Cozart, 63, former LASD agent. He owns and operates a private investigation and security services company.
• Matthew Phillip Hart, 41, an Australian citizen and former member of the Australian Army. He owns a risk management services company in Australia.

An attorney for Lankford declined to comment on the case. Attempts to reach attorneys for the other three men named in the indictment were not immediately successful.

The plan stretches from Australia to Los Angeles.

Prosecutors say that in 2018, Turbett, who also owned a private investigation and asset recovery company based in Australia, was contacted by the “wealthy Chinese national” (also referred to by prosecutors as “the unindicted co-conspirator”) for help finding and recovering assets from “Victim 1.” The years-long legal dispute, which included lawsuits filed in China and in Atlanta, had not been “the smart way” to handle the fight, she told him. She asked Turbett to find a new “solution to end the problem,” prosecutors alleged. If Turbett helped her, she said, “we can both walk away,” according to the indictment.

Turbett and this unindicted co-conspirator had drawn up false settlement agreements that required the victim to transfer nearly $37 million in cash and company stock to the woman, prosecutors allege.

After this, Turbett hired Cozart, one of the former LASD agents, to help him find the victim and assemble a team to get him to sign the paperwork. Cozart involved Lankford in the scheme, as he was still working as an LASD agent. Against agency policy, Lankford looked up the victim’s name and date of birth in the National Crime Information Center database, a system used explicitly for law enforcement matters and not for personal reasons, prosecutors said.

Turbett and Hart flew from Australia to Los Angeles to meet with Cozart and Lankford to discuss plans for the fake raid, according to prosecutors.

On June 17, 2019, they allegedly put the plan into motion. Lankford, again in violation of LASD rules, drove an unmarked department car to the victim’s home with Cozart, Hart and Turbett in tow, according to the indictment. Lankford and Cozart allegedly approached the victim outside his home, both identifying themselves as a police officer and an immigration officer. Lankford flashed his LASD badge to further sell the act, prosecutors said.

The victim’s family was home at the time. The defendants allegedly forced the victim, his wife and two children into a room, took their phones and prevented them from leaving for hours. The victim was allegedly slammed against a wall, strangled and threatened with deportation and separation from her 4-year-old son unless she signed settlement papers, according to prosecutors.

Fearing for his family, the man signed the paperwork. Before he left, Lankford told the man that he would be arrested and deported if he reported this incident to police, according to investigators. Ignoring this threat, the man called the Irvine Police Department as soon as the four men left the house.

Lankford allegedly lied to Irvine Police Department investigators, saying he was at the victim’s home for legitimate law enforcement reasons, that the man consented to everyone being in his home, and that no force was used.

Prosecutors said that by November 2019, all of the men had received money from the scheme. Turbett’s company received about $420,000 from the “wealthy Chinese national” and was thanked for “very good work,” according to prosecutors.

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