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Sacramento landlord faces 13 years in prison

Raghvendra Singh has been convicted of 14 counts of felony filing for false or forged documents and two counts of felony conspiracy to commit a crime.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Notorious property owner Raghvendra Singh is once again on the police blotter, according to District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert. 

This time, Schubert says he's being convicted of 14 counts of felony filing for false or forged documents and two counts of felony conspiracy to commit a crime. The jury also found allegations against Singh for violating of filing a false or forged document were true. The cumulative amount for the violation exceeded $100,000.

The two conspiracy counts are for filing false grant deeds to try to get rid of two of the nuisance properties, according to the district attorney's release. Singh's wife, Kiran Rawat, also involved in the case, pled guilty to two counts of accessory after the fact. 

"This case revolves around four separate litigations in which the defendant filed false proofs of service of motions filed with the court," Schubert's release said, adding that Singh, "took advantage of the fraudulent proofs of service to obtain court judgements in his favor, without the other party even knowing of the proceeding."

In other words, Singh was suing people who challenged his behavior by filing false information about his work to correct the mistakes they accused him of. 

"In one instance," Schubert writes, "he filed a civil action under his wife’s name against the neighborhood watch commander who lives next to one of his nuisance houses for $90 million dollars."

But, since Singh never served the summons to the neighborhood watch commander, when the case came up for judgement, Singh got a default judgement against the victim for the $90 million dollars. 

Singh faces a maximum sentence of 13 years in prison. Under the plea agreement, his wife will be sentenced to 60 days in jail and three years probation. 

As a condition of probation, she has agreed to place seven properties in receivership and to cooperate with their sale to a legitimate owner. This means, the properties will be placed in "custodial responsibility" of another person —which happens when an owner cannot meet the financial obligations and/or are bankrupt. 

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ABC10's coverage goes back to 2014, when the property owner faced an arrest in Nevada during a motel raid. In the raid, authorities seized a half-million dollars' worth of marijuana plants, processed marijuana and hashish at the Roadrunner Motel on Highway 95. 

According to the article, Singh bought motel he was found at in October 2013 for $105,000 but refused to pay taxes because he insisted it was on land that was part of the Walker River Paiute reservation. At the time of his arrest, he owed $2,530 in taxes.

Singh’s sentencing is set for March 13, 2020, at 1:30 p.m. His wife's is set for March 6, 2020 at 9 a.m. Both will be sentenced in Department 20 before the Judge Michael Sweet.

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