Rug merchant Saeid Boustanabadi Maralan was charged by Orange County prosecutors Tuesday with the sexual assault of four women, including forcible rape, and showing pornography to a minor in the downtown Laguna Beach rug store he manages.
Maralan, 33, was required to register as a sex offender in 2002, said Farrah Emami, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
Even so, Maralan’s name is not listed on the state attorney general’s website of registered sex offenders. Apparently some exceptions in the law allow individuals to avoid registering publicly.
Maralan did not enter a plea during a hearing Tuesday and his arraignment was postponed until Oct. 7. He was being held for $1 million bail because he is a flight risk, having traveled frequently to Iran, Laguna police Lt. Jason Kravetz said. If convicted, Maralan faces a maximum sentence of 34 years to life in state prison, prosecutors say. His attorney, Santa Ana’s Glenn Osajima, did not return phone calls seeking comment, but issued a statement saying his client is the not rug store’s owner but its manager.
Police and prosecutors are seeking the public’s help in identifying other potential victims.
Maralan, of Laguna Niguel, is charged with one felony count each of forcible rape, attempted forcible rape, sexual penetration by foreign object by force, and distributing pornography to a minor with a sentencing enhancement allegation for committing a sexual offense against more than one victim, prosecutors say.
Laguna Beach police arrested the manager of Sirous & Sons on Thursday, Sept. 1, after investigating the allegation of a teenage intern, who was subjected to watching pornography at the Ocean Avenue shop, Kravetz said.
Investigators, who obtained a search warrant for computers from the store in March, matched the girl’s claims to internal time stamps of porn site viewing on the computer, he said. Detectives were already investigating Maralan for two earlier sexual assaults that allegedly occurred last year. “It took a long time to put together a strong case,” Kravetz said, including awaiting results from the crime lab and winning the cooperation of victims.
Prosecutors identified the victims as Jane Doe 1, 2, 3 and 4. Maralan allegedly assaulted Jane Doe 1, a customer’s daughter, in a closet in April 21, 2010, while her mother filled out paperwork. Jane Doe 2 was an employee, who allegedly was raped in a storeroom on May 15, 2010. Jane Doe 3, a 17-year-old intern, was shown porn in March of this year. And Jane Doe 4, a prospective employee, was sexually assaulted on Aug. 13.
The felony charges against Maralan are the most serious he has faced. As a business man, though, he seemed immune to customer complaints such as one filed at ripoffreport.com on May 15, by SC Girl, who complained that the store owner refused to return her rugs after cleaning. A similar incident occurred at the store again last week.
On June 21, the City Council denied a $14 million claim from the store for damage due to December’s flooding.
Anyone with additional information or who believes they have been a victim is encouraged to contact Supervising District Attorney Investigator Lou Gutierrez at (714) 347-8794 or LBPD Detectives Natalie Leal or Julia Bowman at (949) 497- 0377.
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This is terrible. How is a convicted sex offender able to get away with not registering? We’ve heard horror stories about someone convicted of public urination having to register as such.
Please let us know if we can do anything to help.
On 12/17/2007 and 12/19/2007 I called the NBPD against this human chameleon, and without looking into the matter at all, they simply dismissed my calls as civil matter. On 04/05/2008 I called the NBPD and asked the answering officer, “is it true that the landlord has to give twenty four hours notice to his tenant in order to inspect his property?” The officer said, “You can inspect your property now, and two police officers will accompany you.” I said, “I can’t today, but I will call you tomorrow.” I wanted to inspect and take pictures of my property, because my tenant had written me a letter that several things were wrong with my building, among them was an allegation that the roof is about ready to collapse, and that the building is a fire hazard because of electric wires sticking from the wall.
The next morning when I drove to the property, the shop was still closed.” I climbed the roof, took some pictures, and within half an hour I heard someone park behind the building. As I was climbing down the roof, a young man asked me, “Who are you?” I identified myself as the owner of the building, and that I was going to call the police and come with them to inspect the building and take pictures of the same inside the building. The young man turned out to be the son of my tenant. He called his father, and informed him of my purpose and presence there. Saeid called the police and told them all kinds of lies that I am armed and dangerous, and that in the past I held him and his employees at gun point. How come he did not call the police in the past when I supposedly held him at gun point? The police searched me and found no weapons of any kind on me. They found a rusted out shotgun in my car that was parked at the back of the building, and an antique Colt revolver and a broken old German Lugar, and not a single bullet was in my car. I asked the police to fingerprint the shotgun. I don’t think they ever did that.
In 1975 I was held at gun point at my former location in Santa Ana and robbed of $500,000.00 worth of very valuable antique and old Oriental rugs. The FBI verified the value of my claim upon recovery of all the rugs save the four most expansive ones. The same was in the Orange County Register of 1976.
In January of 1994 there were three attempts to hold me at gun point in my Corona Del Mar, CA store. At the time there were five or six other rug dealers in CDM, on PCH between MacArthur Blvd. and Poinsettia. None of the other dealers were bothered by the bandits once. The question has to be asked why none of the other rug dealers were not bothered once, and they came after me three times in the same week. I am Armenian Christian and all the rest are or were from Iran, neither Armenian nor Christian. Yet on Monday and Saturday the bandits were arrested by the NBPD.
I asked the police to fingerprint the shotgun, because that was planted into my car by my tenant after he drove to my property. I posted bail for $50,000.00 and was released. Two weeks later I received a letter from the NBPD telling me that my arrest was merely a detention. My past speaks for me, and criminal Saeid’s past speaks for him. If I had known about this person’s character, I would never have considered doing any business with him in any shape or form. I think all of his victims will say the same.
The damage this hungry eyed human being served me was meant to go to needy orphans and widows of Armenia.Too bad that there have been some Armenians who have been as hungry eyed as Saeid, who goes by ten aliases that I know of. He has told the LBPD that he is the manager and not the owner of Sirous And Son Rug Gallery in Laguna Beach. If you search in Google “Saeid Ghasemian |Laguna Beach Independent Newspaper, The Indy” about the flooding of last winter in Laguna Beach, you will find in that article that he is the owner of the Sirous And Son Rug Gallery. Also in this article he goes by Saeid Ghasemian and not Saeid Boustanabadi Maralan. Originally he went by Saeid Bustanimaralan Ghasemian at the 222 Ocean Ave. address.