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The Dark Prince
He claimed to be Nepalese royalty, but police say Kaushal Niroula is a con man whose crew of gay grifters may have murdered a wealthy Palm Springs man.
Niroula persuaded Hisamatsu to set up U.S. bank accounts containing more than $500,000, according to the lawsuit. By using pages of a checkbook he'd taken from her, he was able to empty the accounts. When she began to get wise, Niroula repeated a version of the story he'd begun telling at New College, claiming he'd used the money to rescue members of the Nepalese royal family who were in great danger because of turmoil in their country. If Hisamatsu gave him even more money, Niroula allegedly said, he'd be able to rescue them, and return all of her money.
"He sprinkles in stories of the Nepalese royal family, Islamic terrorists, the British intelligence service MI6," says Ovanessian, whose investigation of Niroula has made his SFPD desk a sort of clearinghouse for Niroula's various alleged frauds. "Whether he believes the stories he tells, I can't say, because I'm not his clinician. But that's what makes it interesting."
Clifford Lambert, missing since December.
Hisamatsu's attorney, Stephen Shaw, shared with me a tape recording of a phone call she made of Niroula's pleading with her for more money — after he'd already taken her for $508,000. He sounded neither charming nor artful, but rather needy and desperate. He was elusive about even the most basic facts, such as where he was staying, or where he would be the next day.
But with his banal entreaties comes a compelling story line. After acknowledging that he'd stolen from Hisamatsu, Niroula explained that the only way she could get her $500,000 back was by giving him $20,000. When she balked, he lowered the amount needed to $2,900.
"No, no, you don't need an account number," he said on the tape.
"But I checked with the bank," Hisamatsu said.
"No, no, no, no. There's a Western Union in Osaka," he said.
"That's far away from here," she said.
"No, no, no. You can do it over the tele-phone," he said.
As the conversation continued, Niroula pivoted. "Sometimes I have a bad side. Sometimes I have a good side. Sometimes I do evil things," he said. "But you are someone who changed my life. You are my Buddha."
"Then do the right thing," Hisamatsu said.
"I will do the right thing," he said. "If you tell me to die, I will die. If you tell me to lie down, I will lie down."
So far, Hisamatsu has not obtained any of the money Niroula allegedly stole.
When contacted by SF Weekly, Mark Sullivan, Niroula's attorney for the Palm Springs murder cases, said he and his client had no comment.
According to charges filed in San Francisco last year, after returning from Hawaii, Niroula hooked up with art consultant Russell Manning, who had worked as a sales representative at two Union Square art galleries and had since set out on his own. One of Manning's prized clients during his Union Square days was Gary Heidenreich, a Peninsula technology executive who collected the works of French surrealist painter Yves Tanguy. According to Ovanessian, Manning told Heidenreich that he had an original Tanguy available for $990,000; it was being sold by the British Crown, because the painting was supposedly a gift from the Nazis. Niroula, posing as a broker, needed a $400,000 down payment as a display of good faith. Sensing what he thought was a unique opportunity, Heidenreich wired the money to Manning, who put it in Niroula's account.
Niroula "cashed a check for $237,000 at a casino immediately after getting the money and spent five or six days at the Bellagio, living the life of Riley," Ovanessian says. "He was in a suite, and he ate well, and drank well."
The Tanguy in question, it turned out, was not really on the market. "It hangs in the National Gallery of Scotland," Ovanessian says. "It was never owned by the Nazis; it was never for sale."
Niroula was arrested not long afterward; Ovanessian went to pick him up. "He extends his hand to shake mine," the detective recalls. "He said he was meaning to call me. I said, 'Then you should have called. We're going to San Francisco now.' He's very flamboyant. He's very gregarious. He's a character."
San Francisco attorney David Replogle, described by Palm Springs police as Niroula's boyfriend, bailed the alleged con man out of jail last summer, Ovanessian said. Niroula said he had the money to pay full restitution to Heidenreich, in exchange for a negotiated plea.
For that money, Niroula apparently went to Marin County, where he befriended a flamboyant middle-aged gay man named Stephen Valentino, who'd dabbled in magazine and video production while living with his 78-year-old mother, Ina Mae.
According to charges in Marin County, Niroula allegedly stole $300,000 worth of jewelry belonging to Valentino's mother. Given Niroula's history, the district attorney asked for $2 million bail. At Niroula's request, the judge knocked it down to $150,000.
Around the same time, Niroula was facing deportation because he was no longer a student and had been accused of criminal conduct. After hearing Niroula's pleas in a special hearing, an immigration judge set bail at $50,000. It wasn't long before Niroula was back on the street again.
Once out on bail, Niroula made his way to Palm Springs, home of Clifford Lambert, who Niroula's sometime boyfriend, Danny Garcia, had hooked up with. Lambert, a once-prominent Los Angeles art dealer, was the reputed confidant of Palm Springs society divas. He was known for throwing extravagant Christmas and Easter parties at his home, and for flirting with younger men while out on the town.
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