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 Where's my money?Next time you are in his restaurant, ask where's my money? By Ramin Mahmoodi August 8, 2002 The Iranian Feb. 15, 2002, is a memorable day and will probably be for many years to come. On that Friday morning, I rushed to the bank to send 9,500 dollars of hard earned money to "Iran's House of Exchange", a Sarafi agency ran by a Mr. Reza Turkamani from his restaurant -- Ramsar -- in the Westwood area of Los Angeles. Living out here in Florida, I did not know of any Sarafi agencies, and needed to send money to my brother-in-law urgently so that he could close a deal for a very small shop in Tehran. Well, as with most Sarafi's, I was promised delivery in Iran within 3-5 days. So I thought to myself that my good-deed of the day was done, and I had come through at a moment of need for my relatives. Needless to say, it was really hard to scrape together $9,500 on such short notice. Days went by and soon it became weeks and no news of the money. Mr. Turkamani kept promising "not today, but tomorrow, I swear to ... " and "the Bank in Iran was too busy, they will deposit it tomorrow, definitely ... ", but of course, they were all lies.  I also kept calling the restaurant, were his brother,
Majid Turkamani, keeps the shop running, and of course he kept assuring me that they
are not thieves and my money is safe with them, it is just delayed a few days. In the meantime, my brother-in-law is near nervous breakdown because the seller is demanding full payment or he is going to keep the 2-million-tuman down payment for failure to close the deal. Finally, on March 9, almost a month after sending the money to Reza Turkamani, I sent him an official letter demanding my money back! His brother, Majid, actually signed for the letter. But of course, Mr. Turkamani continued to play his game of "not today, but tomorrow, I promise ... ". Since I live out in Florida, I asked one of my friends to go in to the restaurant and see if he can persuade him to pay back my money. Mr. Turkamani finally agreed and gave him a check for $4,500. on a Monday, asked him to come back on Friday to receive cash for it along with the rest of the money. But of course, when my friend went to see him, he did not show up at his restaurant. As my friend had to leave to go back to work, I asked him to deposit the check into his own account. As it turns out, the check was bad (insufficient funds ) and in fact was drawn on Majid Turkamani's account , the same person who had assured me that they are not thieves and my money was safe.  That was back in late March and early April. By this time, we had
already spent a few hundred dollars calling Iran and Los Angeles on daily basis,
sometimes talking with Turkamani for 30 to 40 minutes. In the meantime, my brother-in-law had to sell his car at a big loss and resort to borrowing money on the open market at very high rates just to keep from loosing his 2 million. The cost in terms of the agony caused by Reza Turkamani can not be measured in dollars and cents. As we got nowhere with him, I filled a complaint with the police and the California Department of Financial Institutions, which informed me that Mr. Turkamani did not have a license to operate his business, and they informed the proper authorities and that led to the closure of his and other Sarafi's in Los Angeles. Well, to make a long story short, Mr. Turkamani and his brother, Majid, made many false promises to pay back my money, but to this day (July 30, 2002 ) I have not seen a dime returned. Mr Reza Turkamani was charged by the Los Angeles District Attorney office with grand theft on July 10. He showed up in court on July 30 and is scheduled to go back to court on September 25. Although he has probably pleaded "not guilty" to the charge, it will be interesting to see how he can justify taking my money and refusing to return it for almost 6 months now. This is the same man who over four weeks ago had promised my wife, on his "mother's grave", that he was going to return our money before the issue ever got to the courts. His brother, Majid, who had promised over six weeks ago to pay back our money if his brother did not, has also reneged on his promise and continues to run their restaurant in Los Angeles (Ramsar Restaurant, Santa Monica Bld, Los Angeles).  What is the lesson from this ordeal? I think the first
one is that we should not trust Sarafi's. We should ask to see their license and
also demand that they be bonded before we turn over any money to them. The second lesson is that such businessmen need to be better known in the Iranian community. Only the stigma of being considered a "thief" may keep these people honest. And as for the courts, well they take their sweet time. But it is important to report these people so that others can be spared the agony of getting caught in their traps. It seems that Mr. Turkamani has done the same to others as well, but since no one spoke up , others did not find out until it was too late. Next time you are in his restaurant, ask if he has returned my money yet or is he still being sought by the police for "grand theft".
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