Onetime home of “Madoff of Beverly Hills” lists for $21M

A property once owned by Ezri Namvar, better known as the “Madoff of Beverly Hills,” hit the market last week for $20.9 million, listing details show.

The 10,299-square-foot mansion at 12855 Parkyns Street has eight bedrooms, 12 bathrooms and a formal foyer with 21-foot ceilings. The home also has three kitchens, an elevator, a 3D theater and game room. Its backyard includes a tennis court, putting green, pool and spa as well as a lighted sports court, according to listing details.

The seller is unknown, but property records indicate it’s an entity called Vandad, which purchased the bank-owned mansion for $7 million in 2012. Lenders seized the estate from Namvar in 2010, after he was unable to make payments on the property, according to several news reports.

Namvar was once a respected figure in L.A.’s tight knit Iranian-Jewish community, but the real estate investor was charged with wire fraud and with stealing more than $20 million from his clients, according to the Los Angeles Times. He was sentenced to time in federal prison.

Namvar’s firm Namco Financial Exchange Corp. allegedly told clients he could help them avoid paying taxes on real estate sales by holding their money until it was used to make new purchases. But instead, Namvar used the funds to make payments to creditors from another company he controlled, Namco Capital Group. When the firm — which once owned a Marriott Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, in addition to several office buildings and the Hotel Angeleno in West L.A. — went bankrupt in 2008, he was unable to pay back his clients from the tax exchange company, leading investors to accuse him of creating a Ponzi scheme.

Ben Bacal of Rodeo Realty has the listing.