Release Date: March 14, 2008

Contact:    Miles Weiss, Senior Deputy District Attorney

    (805) 654-2278

District Attorney Gregory D. Totten announced today that Aubulghasem Ahmadpour, (DOB 8/28/49), a resident of Simi Valley, was convicted by jury trial of seven felony counts of filing forged instruments, and passing forged instruments with an intent to defraud, by Ventura County Superior Court Judge James P. Cloninger. The investigation and prosecution of this case was conducted by the District Attorney's Office Bureau of Investigation and Real Estate Fraud Prosecution Unit.

The evidence presented during the trial revealed that Ahmadpour became involved in a series of business disputes with three different sets of victims. Ahmadpour was charged with recording and filing false and forged documents with the Ventura County Clerk and Recorder's Office and the Ventura County Superior Court. He was also charged with passing forged documents with the intent to defraud.

In the first instance, Ahmadpour was facing foreclosure proceedings on his Simi Valley residence. He had defaulted on a $78,000 equity loan. In an effort to remove the trust deed securing the loan and thereafter refinance the residence, Ahmadpour recorded a false Substitution of Trustee and Full Reconveyance of Trust Deed, which contained the forged signatures of the two victims in that transaction.

In the second dispute, the victim had been awarded a judgment in Los Angeles County against Ahmadpour for $151,220, as the result of a breached business agreement. Again, in order to clear the title to the residence, Ahmadpour recorded both a false Quitclaim Deed and an Acknowledgement and Satisfaction of Judgment, each containing the forged signatures of the victim.

The third victim, as a result of yet another unrelated business dispute, had been awarded a judgment of $113,900 against Ahmadpour at the conclusion of a civil trial held in Ventura County before Superior Court Judge Steven Hintz. As a result, another lien had been filed against Ahmadpour's residence. Ahmadpour then filed a forged Acknowledgement and Satisfaction of Judgment with the Ventura County Superior Court, and recorded a copy of the same false document containing the forged signatures of this victim, all for the purpose of clearing title on the property.

During the time period that Ahmadpour was attempting to refinance his residence, he also passed forged Substitution of Attorney and Acknowledgement of Satisfaction of Judgment documents to an escrow company, in his ongoing effort to clear outstanding liens against the title of his residence.

At the conclusion of the trial, Judge Cloninger remanded Ahmadpour into custody without bail and set the sentencing hearing on April 14, 2008 at 8:30 a.m. in department 25. Ahmadpour faces a maximum sentence of seven years in state prison.