Federal brokers swooped early Wednesday morning on the Orange County mansion of a slick Indian financier accused of bilking a native financial institution out of just about $100 million.
With computerized weapons daybreak, G-men in tactical gear pounced on Mahender Makhijani, 44, at his plush house on Montecito Drive within the unique coastal enclave of Corona del Mar in Newport Seaside.
Brokers with weapons and a defend breached the mansion’s gate and pounded on the entrance door. “Police with a warrant – Come to the door!” yelled an agent.
After a couple of tense moments, Makhijani got here out in pajamas. Brokers positioned him in cuffs and put him black sedan to be transported to jail. It was a dramatic ending to a high-flying monetary profession marked by scandal and brutality.
Federal prosecutors say Makhijani defrauded a financial institution out of almost $100 million by doctoring title insurance policies to make actual property used as collateral look extra useful than it really was. The cash nonetheless has not been recovered, in line with courtroom papers.
Makhijani, who’s a everlasting US resident from India, is charged with financial institution fraud.
He’s anticipated to make his preliminary look this afternoon in the US District Courtroom in Santa Ana.
“When criminals are allowed to deceive lenders, the spillover results can hurt shoppers and companies,” mentioned First Assistant United States Legal professional Invoice Essayli. “As we speak’s arrest highlights our workplace’s continued dedication to fight threats to our nation’s banking system.”
Makhijani, who typically wore designer sun shades even whereas indoors and favored posh linen shirts, was accustomed to touring by personal jet and stored two mansions aspect by aspect, with the second reserved for his in-laws, in line with prosecutors.
The flashy monetary mastermind rolled round in a fleet of luxurious automobiles that included a Bentley, Porsche, and Mercedes G-Wagon, controlling “huge sums of cash,” to help his lavish life-style, in line with courtroom paperwork.
However Makhijani obtained the cash illegally, in line with authorities who say he used a fancy internet of firms and monetary devices to cover the true worth of his wealth, which nonetheless stays unknown.
“Makhijani has vital monetary assets, however the authorities has not totally traced and accounted for these assets, that are nearly definitely not held in Makhijani’s identify,” states a legal grievance.
The financier used Newport Seaside-based firm referred to as Cantor V to execute his cons, in line with prosecutors, however Cantor V was simply one among “quite a few entities” the fraudster managed, courtroom paperwork say.
To bilk the financial institution, which was not recognized by authorities, out of just about $100 million, Makhijani personally falsified financial institution actual property titles utilizing a laptop computer, prosecutors say, by manually altering metadata fields or by printing and scanning altered paperwork.
Makhijani bragged to associates that he would flee to India if he have been ever caught and used a group of henchmen to hold out his deeds, in line with feds, controlling them by threatening to “kill” them and put their “household on the road” and “their youngsters on welfare.”
Witnesses mentioned Makhijani would additionally blackmail his underlings, internet hosting events with intercourse employees and medicines which have been attended by financial institution staff, later threatening to reveal those that participated within the twisted festivities.
He employed brute drive in opposition to his monetary rivals, posting eviction notices on the properties of their relations and directing males to interrupt into their companies. In a single dispute, he posted a billboard accusing an enemy of theft in a bid to smash his status.
Video and photograph proof collected by prosecutors confirmed Makhijani in shades and designer garments as he calmly directed his thugs to assault safety guards, smash home windows, and take monetary paperwork from his enterprise rivals.
In a 2023 dispute with a former accomplice over who had the fitting to run the Resort Laguna, he introduced his bouncers into the resort foyer, the place they roughed up employees there, proof within the legal grievance exhibits.
The disturbances triggered the Resort Laguana and one other resort referred to as 14 West to be quickly closed for enterprise by the town supervisor, in line with The Day by day Pilot, which reported that armed guards have been concerned in a 20-person brawl on the properties.
In Could an arbitrator awarded roughly $1.34 billion to Laguna Seaside businessman Mohammad Honarkar over the dispute, which included dozens of different properties, concluding that Makhijani breached agreements and defrauded Honarkar.
“Criminals like this, they’ve a number of firms, a number of locations,” Honarkar advised The Pilot. “They cover, and [Makhijani] doesn’t provide you with any paper.”
