Failed Modesto IMAX developer gets 1-year prison sentence

“Delusions of grandeur” and “bipolar mania” – not a criminal desire to steal millions of dollars from victims – were to blame for Modesto businesswoman Aruna Chopra’s fraudulent actions, her attorney said just before a federal judge sentenced her Monday to a year behind bars.

Chopra, 67, will serve an additional year of home detention and must repay lenders and Modesto City Hall a total of $4.2 million, Judge Anthony Ishii decided. He could have sentenced her up to 5 1/4 years in federal prison, but agreed with attorneys that she’s in bad mental and physical shape.

“She is clearly humbled by her actions, and embarrassed, for which she takes full responsibility,” defense attorney Leonard Levine said.

Asked if she wanted to make a statement, Chopra – in a wheelchair and wearing an eye patch after a second eye surgery – said simply, “I’m sorry.”

She had tried to conceal forgeries with more forged signatures – no less than 14 – on multiple phony documents, according to a plea deal worked out with authorities in November.

Prosecutor Mark McKeon argued against the idea of Chopra serving her entire sentence in home detention. He noted that she and her husband, Sawtantra Chopra, continue to face separate forgery and impersonation charges in Stanislaus Superior Court related to another land deal.

“This isn’t a case of a single mistake,” McKeon said.

Her dream for The Plaza at Dale – an IMAX movie theater, bowling alley, Four Points by Sheraton hotel, restaurants, shops and luxury condominiums – emerged in The Modesto Bee in 2008, after she acquired nearly 40 acres, putting down $3 million with an additional $6.4 million debt to sellers.

She later obtained more loans worth $2.5 million secured by the same property. Recorded documents bearing forged signatures concealed from lenders the previous debt as well as hiding the new loans from old lenders, her plea deal said. Chopra nearly persuaded City Hall to provide $6.7 million in bonds, also secured by the land, but city officials “saw the fraud and pulled out,” McKeon said Monday.

One key document purportedly was signed in Modesto by a woman who later proved she had been in Amsterdam, Netherlands, on the day in question. Verification by a notary public also was forged, the plea deal said.

Chopra and her husband came to the United States from India in 1974 and her business interests have spanned several counties in the Central Valley and Bay Area. Sawtantra Chopra liquidated his pension to help repay creditors, Levine said, adding that all should be repaid – perhaps with a profit – if the property sells at a decent price.

Chopra had wished her development to be “a jewel of the city and put Modesto on the map,” Levine said. But land values plummeted in a national “real estate and bank collapse,” he said, “and she constantly was playing catch-up.”

Levine said Chopra needs knee-replacement surgery and constant medical care that may not be available in prison.

“She will continue to suffer in the knowledge of what she’s done, and done to her family,” Levine said.

He also told the court Chopra lost $4 million herself in the deal,

Ishii, noting “a number of victims and significant dollar amount,” decided Chopra should spend a year behind bars.

“I can’t say home detention would be sufficient,” the judge said, ordering her to surrender to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons on July 11.

Ishii said Chopra must pay restitution in these amounts: $1.6 million to the former property owner, $2.5 million to an insurance company that paid out claims to other lenders, and $43,138 to City Hall.

Riverbank landed the region’s first IMAX cinema when Galaxy Theatres, which opened a 12-screen cineplex in 2000 and has nothing to do with Chopra, added a 440-seat IMAX auditorium a few weeks ago.

This story was originally published April 11, 2016 at 3:09 PM with the headline "Failed Modesto IMAX developer gets 1-year prison sentence."