The wealthy tech tycoon who allegedly shoved his wife from a SoCal mountain killed her to stop her from siphoning millions from their joint bank account, new court documents reveal.
Aryan Papoli had withdrawn $5 to $8 million from the bank she shared with Gordon Abas Goodarzi and had plans to split the couple’s lavish properties between their two sons, according to a probable cause affidavit obtained by The California Post.
At the time, the couple of 28 years was in the middle of a bitter divorce initiated by Papoli, who made multiple attempts to ensure that her allegedly greedy husband didn’t block the boys from getting their inheritance.
“It is believed that the murder in part was committed for that financial gain,” prosecutors claim in the jaw-dropping document obtained by The California Post.
“It is believed the defendant would financially benefit from the murder by being able to claim a right to the money.”
The explosive allegations shed further light on the cold-blooded murder in San Bernardino County — which prosecutors had previously claimed was financially motivated.
The couple was five months into divorce proceedings when Papoli’s body was found at the bottom of a 75-foot embankment on a mountain road on Nov. 18.
At the time, the two were fighting over several properties that they planned to divvy up, including the $3 million Rolling Hills Estate “marital residence” where Goodarzi was arrested, a $1 million dollar home in Chino Hills and a 43,000-square-foot industrial property in Worcester, Massachusetts.
They also had a vacant plot in SoCal worth $500,000 and a property in Crestline — the same town where Papoli’s body was discovered.
Papoli was also seeking spousal support from her estranged engineer husband of 28 years, who sold his tech company US Hybrid, a clean energy company specializing in zero-emission powertrain components for commercial and military vehicles, for $50 million in 2021.
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Papoli, 58, was apparently trying to pass the money to the two sons she shared with Goodarzi, both of whom are in their 20s, but the former tech CEO still has a “community property and inheritance right to the funds a probate court will have to determine.”
The cash is clear motive for murder, prosecutors allege.
The divorce was called off Dec. 23 “due to the death of the petitioner.”
Investigators had already alluded to Goodarzi’s allegedly greedy incentives. In a felony complaint filed last week, he was accused of attempting to take assets of “great monetary value” and had taken advantage of the trust of his wife to facilitate her death.
It is not clear what sparked the divorce, though Papoli cited “irreconcilable differences” in her June petition.
The Iranian-born mom of two had only moved to Newport Beach six months before her death, seeking a “serene place to thrive creatively” after retiring, her son Navid Goodarzi said.
Goodarzi made a brief appearance in San Bernardino County court Tuesday for an arraignment that was postponed til Thursday. He remains in custody.
