“This dangerous activity by a bail agent came to a halt after a joint investigation at the local and state level. It is important that investigative agencies combine their resources to protect the public from harm, both physical and financial.”
CSLEA President Alan Barcelona
LOS ANGELES – On November 29, 2023, former bail agent Rehan Nazir, 51, of Torrance, was sentenced to 27 years after an investigation by the Los Angeles County Sheriff Major Crimes Bureau and the California Department of Insurance found he had apprehended bail clients prior to their required court appearances and threatened to return them to jail if they did not pay him money or give him property.
Earlier this year, a jury found Nazier guilty of 17 felony counts of kidnapping, extortion, burglary, false imprisonment, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony and grand theft.
The investigation found Nazir, while working as a licensed bail agent, employed several fugitive recovery persons, more commonly known as bounty hunters, to assist him in locating and appending several persons that he had bonded out of jail prior to their required court appearances. The investigation also resulted in two employees of Nazir being convicted of false imprisonment and a third whose pending sentencing.
In one instance, they forced entry to a home and detained multiple people at gunpoint looking for someone Nazir had previously bailed out of jail. Nazir threatened to return that person to jail unless they paid him money. He handcuffed them and had them driven to his bail office in Torrance, while friends or family members were driven by fugitive recovery persons to ATM machines.
Nazir also used his former experience as a police officer to convince local law enforcement that he had authority to repossess vehicles owned by persons he had bailed out, even though no contract for collateral had been completed, and the vehicles were in physical possession of his clients’ family members. In other instances, Nazir accepted stolen credit cards and property in lieu of cash to let clients go. Nazir was also found guilty of threatening a family member of an arrestee by having another person deliver graphic photos of an officer involved shooting in which he was personally involved.
Nazir had previously been terminated by the Torrance Police Department after the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office determined that he had submitted false information in a report by failing to document the use of a confidential informant.
Nazir’s bail agent license expired on June 30, 2019.
