Billionaire Boys Club Defendant Pleads Guilty
Once-convicted suspect gets four years' probation, leaving only victim's
son to be tried
By Matthew B. Stannard
The San Francisco Chronicle
August 5, 2000
San Mateo -- One of the most notorious and expensive murder cases ever
tried in San Mateo County quietly closed another chapter yesterday, as
Arben Dosti pleaded guilty to manslaughter and kidnapping for his part
in the 1984 Billionaire Boys Club murder case.
Court records show that Dosti was sentenced to the time he already has
served -- 12 years, 8 months -- and ordered to serve four years of probation
for his part in the kidnapping and killing of a former Iranian official
and Belmont resident, Hedayat Eslaminia.
That leaves Dosti's co-defendant, Eslaminia's son, Reza, as the only
remaining player in the drawn-out case, which inspired an Emmy-winning
miniseries and cost San Mateo County taxpayers more than $1.3 million.
Dosti and Eslaminia already were convicted once in 1988 for the murder
of the elder Eslaminia. Prosecutors had alleged that the Iranian refugee
was murdered in a botched kidnap-for-ransom plan by a network of wealthy
young Southern California scions who called themselves the Bombay Boys
Club -- later redubbed the Billionaire Boys Club in tabloid coverage.
Prosecutors had argued that the scheme was crafted to satisfy the mounting
debts of Joe Hunt, the group's charismatic leader. The plan, investigators
testified, was to kidnap the elder Eslaminia and torture him into handing
over some of the $30 million he claimed -- falsely, as it turned out --
to have spirited out of Iran in the late 1970s.
Eslaminia died in a steamer trunk that was used to transport him from
his Belmont apartment to the "safe house" where he was to be
held, prosecutors said. Investigators said the kidnappers had poked holes
in the trunk to allow their victim to breathe, then plugged them when his
moans became noisy.
Simple as the case must have seemed to investigators, proving it in
court quickly became extremely complex, despite the cooperation of Dean
Karny, club member, kidnapper and close friend of Hunt's who testified
against his friends and entered the Witness Protection Program.
The charismatic Hunt, acting as his own attorney, mesmerized a 1992
jury. The panel's 8-to-4 vote resulted in a hung jury. Prosecutors elected
to drop the charges, hoping that Hunt's life sentence in a separate murder
of a Los Angeles con man would stick -- as it so far has.
Reza Eslaminia and Dosti were sentenced in 1988 to life in prison without
possibility of parole in the kidnap-murder case, but those cases were reversed
in 1998 after it was learned that the jury had heard a tape recording of
a statement from Eslaminia's brother, Ari, who had never been called as
a witness.
In recent months, the once-dramatic case has been shrouded in secrecy,
as lawyers for both sides shuffled motions under a gag order that still
stands.
Nathan Barankin, spokesman for Attorney General Bill Lockyer, whose
office prosecuted the case, declined to comment yesterday, citing the gag
order. Eslaminia's attorney, Jeff Boyarsky, did not return phone calls
requesting comment. Dosti's attorney, Harold Rosenthal, also declined to
comment for the record but said in court that he was happy with the decision.
One person who would comment was Leslie Abramson, the quick-spoken Los
Angeles attorney who represented Erik Menendez in his patricide case and
-- for a time represented -- Reza Eslaminia.
"I'm glad the kid's free. Nice kid. I hope he's not turning as
a witness against Reza, who is an equally nice kid," she said. "The
fact that they offered manslaughter for what was a capital murder case
tells you something. . . . They never had a very strong case against these
individuals."
Eslaminia will return to court on October 4.
Links
