A wealthy tech entrepreneur is accused of pushing his wife down a mountain in Southern California, allegedly to prevent her from stopping him from draining millions from their joint bank account. Court documents recently revealed this startling allegation.
Aryan Papoli is said to have withdrawn between $5 million and $8 million from a shared bank account with Gordon Abbas Gudarji and had plans to split their extravagant wealth with his two sons, according to an affidavit obtained by the California Post.
The couple, married for 28 years, was embroiled in a contentious divorce initiated by Papoli, who tried to protect his sons’ inheritance from what he perceived as his wife’s greed.
Prosecutors suggest in a document that some murders, including this one, may have been committed for financial motives.
“The defendant is thought to gain financially from the murder since he could claim rights to any related money,” the reports state.
This shocking murder discovery in San Bernardino County has been suspected to be financially driven. Papoli’s body was found at the bottom of a 75-foot incline on November 18, during a time when they were settling disputes over various properties, including their $3 million marital mansion and multiple other assets worth significant sums.
They were arguing over several properties, such as a $1 million home in Chino Hills, a 43,000-square-foot industrial site in Worcester, Massachusetts, and vacant land valued at $500,000 located in Southern California.
Papoli had also filed for spousal support from her estranged husband, who sold his clean energy company, US Hybrid, for $50 million in 2021.
He intended to allocate the withdrawn funds to their two sons, both in their twenties. However, the former tech CEO retained “community property and inheritance rights” that a probate court would need to address.
Investigators are pointing to financial gain as a motive for the crime. The couple’s divorce proceedings were effectively halted when the divorce petition was canceled on December 23, “due to the death of the petitioner.”
Prior hints had suggested that Mr. Goodarzi might have been driven by greed. A recent felony complaint alleged that he attempted to misappropriate assets of “substantial monetary value” and used his wife’s trust as part of the scheme to facilitate her death.
While the exact reason for the divorce remains uncertain, Papoli had cited “irreconcilable differences” in her June filing. Notably, the Iranian-born mother of two had recently relocated to Newport Beach, hoping for a “quiet place to grow creatively” following her retirement.
Mr. Goodarzi appeared briefly in San Bernardino County Court on Tuesday, although his arraignment has been postponed until Thursday. He remains detained.
