You may recall the name Sirous and Sons from our coverage of Saeid Boustanabadi Maralan, the Laguna Beach rug store's manager and registered sex offender facing up to 60 years to life in
state prison for allegedly sexually assaulting and/or exposing himself
to 11 women. Most incidents having happened at the downtown store are not what has caused its closure, however. The business has been involved in ongoing disputes with its landlord and the city of Laguna Beach, which Sirous and Sons is suing for more than $14 million.
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According to the suit filed Dec. 7, owner Sirous Ghasemian blames the city for damage he's estimated at $14 million that followed flooding on Dec. 22, 2010. Storm water, mud and debris washed down from the steep hills cradling the village, inundating the local flood control system and pouring the gunk into downtown businesses, including Ghasemian's store that hawked unique rugs.
His complaint accuses the city of failing to warn merchants about the flood danger and chides the City Council for rejecting an Army Corps of Engineers recommendation in 2002 to expand storm channel capacity. The council reasoned long construction would disrupt business downtown too much.
Meanwhile, Sirous and Sons' landlord, Laguna Dana Investments, has twice sued the tenant since last summer over unpaid rent
and lease terms being violated, reports the Orange County Register. There is also a Sirous and Sons rug store in San Clemente.
As for 53-year-old Maralan, the married father of a daughter in Laguna Niguel has a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 14.
Previous coverage:
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.