and after a brief frenzy of excitement, the house sold to an Egyptian business- man for around $4 million.
N
Top: auction visitors mingle in the entry hall of the Taneja mansion.
Left: a photograph of Vijay and Deepti Taneja displayed inside the home.
ot long after the auction, Tane- ja appeared before U.S. Dis- trict Judge Claude M. Hilton for sentencing. His court file
brimmed with letters of support from friends and family, describing Taneja as a loving father and husband who had tried to help his community. But the glittery crowd of celebrities
he used to hobnob with stayed away. Now he was attended only by his grim- faced wife, another female relative and his lawyers. His midnight-blue suit hung awkwardly on his large frame. In the months ahead, forensic in-
vestigators would devote hundreds of hours to unraveling Taneja’s compli- cated business ventures, tracing $700 million that flowed through his various companies over the years. The bank- ruptcy trustee would sell three man- sions and a huge beach house to recoup around $20 million for more than 300 creditors in the case, a fraction of the $150 million believed owed. And several of Taneja’s associates
and relatives are bracing themselves for accusations that they also had benefited from the fraud, making them the likely targets of a new round of civil lawsuits by the trustee this summer. Before Hilton sentenced the man
S
hortly after Taneja agreed to plead guilty to one count of money laundering in federal court in Alexandria in 2008, his
seven-bedroom estate was auctioned off to pay his creditors. Deepti Taneja, who moved with her
children into a more modest house nearby, did not return calls seeking comment. She did not face charges. Scores of people trooped into the
house to inspect the enormous kitchen and the living room with the hand- painted mural of the Lord Krishna and his consort on the wall. Downstairs, they took in the movie theater, the squash
court and the swimming pool with the retractable roof. They climbed the wide circular staircase to ogle the prayer room with its gold-leaf walls — designed by a Hindu priest — and the master bed- room with a five-room closet “suite” crammed with hundreds of jeweled saris and shoes. “It would make Imelda Marcos
proud,” whispered H. Jason Gold, the bankruptcy trustee. Downstairs, bidders and curious
neighbors gathered in the party room, where a disco ball threw patterns of light onto a marble floor. The auctioneer wielded the gavel, starting the bidding,
responsible for all the turmoil to seven years in prison — which he is serving a minimum security prison in Loretto, Pa. — the judge asked Taneja if he had anything to say about the damage he’d done. Hanging his head and speaking in
his quiet, mumbling way, Taneja said he was “very sorry about my conduct and the embarrassment of my family and the aggravation to all of the victims. Fully accept my responsibility. I’m re- ally, really sorry.”
Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.
Annie Gowen covers wealth, class and income for The Washington Post. She can be reached at gowena@
washpost.com.
June 6, 2010 | The WashingTon PosT Magazine 27
PHOTOGRAPHS BY DOMINIC BRACCO II
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