A wealthy Southern California entrepreneur was charged with murdering his estranged wife — more than two months after her lifeless body was found at the bottom of a steep cliff.
Gordon Abas Goodarzi, 66 — who sold his tech company for $50 million — was busted at his home in luxury Rolling Hills Estates Friday on accusations he murdered his 58-year-old wife Aryan Papoli, of Newport Beach.
Papoli’s body was discovered at the bottom of 75-foot embankment on a mountain road in rural Crestline, about 70 miles outside of Los Angeles, on Nov. 18.
Investigators couldn’t immediately identify the remains, and released a sketch of a woman they described as between 48 and 60 years old, 5 feet 1 inch tall, weighing 115 pounds, with bleached blonde hair and brown eyes.
She was wearing a blue sweatshirt, blue pants and white and black New Balance shoes.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department’s Coroner’s Office ultimately identified the “Jane Doe” as Papoli on Dec. 1, and ruled her death a homicide.
Charging document filed by the San Bernardino County District Attorney’s Office state that Popali was “particularly vulnerable” and that Goodarzi allegedly carried out the murder with “planning, sophistication, or professionalism.”
The alleged crime involved “an attempted or actual taking or damage of great monetary value,” the document said.
The couple, who records show filed for divorce in June, met 30 years ago in California.
Goodarzi founded US Hybrid, a clean energy company specializing in zero-emission powertrain components for commercial and military vehicles, in 1999.
He was the CEO, while Papoli worked as the CFO and vice president.
The couple scored a lifechanging payday in 2021 when US Hybrid was bought by Torrance-based Ideanomics for $50 million in a cash-and-stock deal.
Goodarzi is a research affiliate at UCLA, according to the university’s website, which touted his decades of experience with electric vehicles.
The couple has two sons, Navid and Milad, and purchased their five-bedroom home in Rolling Hills Estates in 2017 for $1.3 million, records show. The home is now worth $3 million.
Papoli relocated to Newport Beach six months before her death, seeking a “serene place to thrive creatively” after retiring from corporate life, according to son Navid.
“Aryan Papoli spread light, love and joy wherever she went,” the family wrote in a website dedicated to the slain woman.
“A sister, mother, friend, wife, artist, business woman, philanthropist, environmentalist, and inspiration, Aryan’s passion for creative expression was only matched by her care for those she loved.”
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Goodarzi was being held without bail in the San Bernardino’s Central Detention Center.
He was scheduled to be arraigned on first-degree murder charges Tuesday.
