Ezri Namvar, who was accused of creating a Ponzi scheme and sentenced to seven years in federal prison in 2011 for stealing $21 million from four clients, is now involved in a civil trial.
“The story is that I gave him $1 million in order to buy real estate, secure the property [and] he never delivered it,” the plaintiff, local businessman Bijan Kianmahd, told the Journal in a phone interview.
The trial began Sept. 15 in Santa Monica before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Craig D. Karlan.
The case, “Bijan Kianmahd vs Ezri Namvar,” was filed in August 2015. A Nov. 20, 2015, document says the complaint is for a breach of written contract, fraud, conversion of identified and specified funds, breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, injunction and declaratory relief.
Kianmahd is seeking $1.8 million, which includes “unpaid interest,” according to his attorney, Jeffrey Griffith.
“The facts which gave rise to the case occurred in 2008. Here we are, eight years later, still going to court for it,” Griffith said.
Following a Sept. 20 court appearance, Namvar said, “I don’t want to talk about anything until this is done. … He [Kianmahd] is trying to win this by innuendos.”
Namvar is being represented by complex litigation attorney Timothy Neufeld and Yuriko Shikai.
In 2008, Namvar — labeled by some as the “Bernie Madoff of Beverly Hills” — was forced into involuntary bankruptcy and accused by investors of creating a Ponzi scheme. In October 2011, Namvar was sentenced in federal criminal court to seven years in prison. Creditors said they believe Namvar bilked investors, who put money into his $2.5 billion real estate portfolio before the 2008 market crash, of hundreds of millions of dollars.
Namvar, a former board member of Nessah Synagogue, a predominantly Iranian-Jewish congregation in Beverly Hills, was a longtime leading businessman and philanthropist in the area. Many of his clients were members of the tight-knit Iranian-Jewish community.
During a court appearance on Sept. 20, much of the questioning revolved around Namvar’s Namco Financial Exchange Corp., a qualified intermediary company that was created to keep his clients’ real estate profits in safekeeping until invested in additional real estate. This way, the profits earned from the clients’ previous real estate transactions were not subject to capital gains taxes.
He was convicted of using the money — more than $20 million — to pay off creditors of his other company, Namco Capital Group, and for additional personal uses. Namvar was accused of continuing to lead a lavish lifestyle while many of his creditors found themselves without their savings. During testimony on Tuesday, however, he said his lifestyle was “moderate” compared to that of his colleagues.
He ended up serving about four years in prison at Central Valley Modified Community Correctional Facility and Federal Correctional Institution Terminal Island.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.