Would-be Modesto Imax developer faces more fraud charges

The would-be developer of Modesto’s first Imax theater, already facing fraud counts in federal court, surrendered Monday with her husband on separate charges accusing them of cheating other victims in the same way.

Aruna Kumari Chopra, 65, and her husband, Dr. Sawtantra Kumar Chopra, 67, were booked at the Stanislaus County Jail on forgery and impersonation charges related to a 26-year-old land deal in Danville. They were released after posting bail of $40,000 each.

Forty acres on Dale Road across from Kaiser Modesto Medical Center remain in limbo while the Chopras’ legal troubles are sorted out. They include:

▪ A trial for Aruna Chopra, scheduled for February in Sacramento. Federal prosecutors say she forged signatures and filed phony documents to secure multimillion-dollar loans in hopes of building the theater, luxury condominiums, a hotel and a bowling alley.

▪ A lawsuit in Stanislaus County, set for trial in April, tied to the same Modesto property. Those claiming to be victims say they’re owed $12.4 million.

▪ An ongoing bankruptcy involving multiple parties, in which no less than 1,160 documents have been filed.

▪ A lawsuit in Contra Costa County, filed in August, stemming from the Danville dispute.

Aruna Chopra also had sought $6.6 million in municipal bonding before Modesto officials became suspicious in 2011.

The real estate fraud unit of the Stanislaus County District Attorney’s Office investigated the Danville claims, leading to Monday’s surrender arranged through Aruna Chopra’s Los Angeles attorney, Michael Chaney. He reserved comment but said Sawtantra Chopra will be represented by his own defense lawyer.

Sawtantra Chopra, a pulmonologist, was convicted in 2003 on a felony charge of receiving illegal kickbacks for referring patients to another medical provider.

An arrest warrant affidavit says the Chopras signed a recorded agreement to give 10 percent of profits from developing 20 acres in Danville to two Bay Area men involved in real estate who located the vacant land for the Chopras in 1988. They erased the men’s interest in the deal by forging their names on a 2008 notarized document that enabled the Chopras to use the property to obtain a $810,000 loan from Los Gatos investors, says the affidavit, filed by Stanislaus district attorney investigator Glenn Gulley.

Federal authorities say Aruna Chopra had employed the same method with the Modesto property, leading to her federal charges.

The Modesto Bee in 2011 wrote about the Chopras’ Los Gatos creditors suing after the Chopras defaulted on the Danville loan, which was secured by land there, as well as property in Modesto and Oakdale. But the other men expecting a return since 1988 suspected nothing until June, when one noticed that construction finally had begun and came looking for their 10 percent cut, Gulley said in the affidavit.

The men went to authorities, and Gulley determined that someone had forged the signatures of the victims, as well as that of a notary public who previously worked for the Chopras’ son, Sanjiv, the affidavit says. The notary’s journal ended in March 2008, while the suspected forgeries were recorded in May 2008, Gulley said.

One of the claimed victims, land broker Shyam Chetal, figures the Danville property is worth about $10 million, meaning he and his former partner would be owed $1 million, the paper says.

Chetal’s August lawsuit tells the same story, saying the Chopras were “unjustly enriched” by the forgeries, and seeks $500,000 in damages, plus punitive and exemplary damages.

Sawtantra Chopra studied medicine in India, graduating in 1968 and receiving a license to practice in California in 1975. Documents outlining “dishonest or corrupt acts” with the California Department of Consumer Affairs say he was paid more than $10,500 plus Sacramento Kings basketball tickets worth $500 for referring patients to another provider from August 2001 to February 2002.

He pleaded guilty to one count of receiving illegal kickbacks and was sentenced to 180 days of home detention, fined $75,000, ordered to do 500 hours of community service and placed on three years of probation.

Sawtantra Chopra cooperated with an investigation by the state Medical Board, which suspended his doctor license for one month and ordered him to take an ethics course.

This story was originally published December 1, 2014 at 5:27 PM with the headline "Would-be Modesto Imax developer faces more fraud charges."