Two Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and two soldiers from Australia and Britain have been charged with conducting a false immigration investigation on a Chinese man and coercing him into handing over his business interests.
The fake raid was reportedly orchestrated by a Chinese businessman who still lives in China to blackmail a former business partner, a Chinese immigrant who is legally residing in the U.S., into signing over $37 million in business interests. The plotters reportedly paid four mercenaries $400,000 in 2019 to carry out the raid.
“At some point, this wealthy Chinese person decided to hire this mercenary to carry out their act,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada told reporters in downtown Los Angeles. “The goal was to get this individual to sign a contract, to hand over the business interests. And ultimately, he did it, but he did it through force, through intimidation and through blackmail.”
The indictment names Deputy Sheriff Stephen A. Lankford, who worked as a law enforcement officer at the time but is now retired, as one of the conspirators.
“He used his badge to enter the home. He used his authority as a sheriff’s deputy to intimidate the family and threatened to deport the businessman,” Estrada said.
According to NBC Los AngelesAccording to prosecutors, Lankford “retired from the department in 2017 but returned to work a limited number of hours each year as a part-time employee with the Sheriff’s Department and was working in that capacity at the time of the 2019 incident.”
“The indictment alleges the four participated in a conspiracy to commit extortion and deprive others of their rights under false pretenses, and also states that Lankford attempted to drop the investigation into the assault after the victim contacted Irvine police,” the media outlet noted.
Directed by Paul Laurent Bois An award-winning Christian technology thriller, example,this is Rotten Tomatoes critic rating: 100% Free to watch YouTube or Tubi“Better than Killer of the Flower Moon.” Mark Judge wrote:“You’ve never seen a story like this before.” Christian Toth wrote:High quality, ad-free rentals Google Play, Vimeo On Demand, or YouTube MovieFollow him on .X Proland Films Or Instagram Proland Films.
