Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles announced charges Monday against ex-law enforcement and military officers accused of using threats and violence in an effort to extort an Irvine man for nearly $37 million.

The four men charged are accused of entering the unnamed victim’s Irvine residence in 2019 and detaining the victim, his wife and their two children for hours. The four men acted as a sham law enforcement team to gain entrance to the victim’s home, prosecutors say.

“It is critical that we hold public officials, including law enforcement officers, to the same standards as the rest of us,” said United States Attorney Martin Estrada. “It is unacceptable and a serious civil rights violation for a sworn police officer to take the law into his own hands and abuse the authority of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.”

Once inside the home, the four men are accused of extorting the victim and his family using violence and violent threats. Prosecutors say in the indictment that the victim was slammed against a wall and choked, and that the four men threatened to deport the victim and his wife and permanently separate them from their 4-year-old son.

Under duress, the victim complied with their demands and signed documents that transferred nearly $37 million of his assets in a China-based rubber chemical manufacturer, Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology, to an un-indicted, un-named co-conspirator.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office, the raid was financed by the un-indicted, un-named co-conspirator, a wealthy Chinese national with whom the victim shared ownership of Jiangsu Sinorgchem Technology. Prosecutors say the two had an ongoing business dispute over their ownership interests.

Steven Arthur Lankford, 68, of Canyon Country; Glen Louis Cozart, 63, of Upland; Max Samuel Bennett Turbett, 39, of Australia, who is a United Kingdom citizen; and Matthew Phillip Hart, 41, of Australia, are charged in a superseding indictment with one count of conspiracy to commit extortion, one count of attempted extortion, one count of conspiracy against rights and one count of deprivation of rights under color of law, the office said.

Lankford is a retired Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy who stopped working for the agency in 2020 and owns a Santa Clarita-based process service company, Cozart is also a former LASD deputy who owns a private investigation and security services company, Turbett is a former member of the British military who owns a private investigation and asset recovery business, and Hart is a former member of the Australian military who owns a management service business, prosecutors said.

After the four men left his home, the victim contacted the Irvine Police Department. According to prosecutors in the indictment, when Lankford was questioned he said that he entered the victim’s home for a legitimate law enforcement operation, that the victim consented to the four men entering the home and that no force was used.

“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.”

The four men could face up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted.