The older sister of tennis legend Andre Agassi faces a multi-million-dollar lawsuit, might lose her house and is getting ready to chapter ever since she hitched her wagon to a would-be convicted conman over twenty years in the past.
Tammy Agassi’s life was plunged into chaos in 2017, when her luxurious lodge developer husband, Lobsang Dargey, pleaded responsible to wire fraud and concealing materials info from federal authorities — leaving her to face the $2.7 million swimsuit associated to a busted land deal.
“He painted himself as a really sincere, honorable particular person. Onerous working and very smart, of the utmost ethical character. That’s what he offered himself as,” Tami solely informed The Submit. “What he got here to be was very totally different. Very crafty, calculated and manipulative.”
Tami met “charming” Dargey at a charity occasion in Seattle within the early 2000s, admitting that she discovered her would-be husband’s obvious honesty refreshing.
He claimed he didn’t know of Andre Agassi’s glittering tennis profession, which included eight Grand Slam titles and an Olympic gold medal. However Dargey’s seeming naivety masked his true motives.
“He saved up the act for some time,” she mentioned. “After which he pretended he simply found it, and acted mad at me that I didn’t inform him. He was very indignant.”
“On the time I assumed he was a bit bit uncomfortable and this was his means of approaching it. He portrayed himself because the immigrant who didn’t know very a lot,” she added.
To strike up a romance, Dargey, a Tibetan refugee and former Buddhist monk, made “persistent, continuous chilly calls” to Tami’s Seattle workplace.
The pair had been engaged inside a yr and tied the knot simply three months after Dargey popped the query. They went on to welcome a daughter, adopted by twins.
“He ingratiated himself with me but in addition extra importantly with my dad, who was a really sturdy determine in my life,” Tami mentioned of her late father Emmanuel Agassi, who died in 2021. “My dad beloved him dearly, revered him immensely.”
Tami, a breast most cancers survivor, added, “Put it this manner, if most cancers got here again, that is the man I might need elevating my children. He appeared like he had the character morals that I used to be on the lookout for in an individual.”
After incomes their belief, Dargey was given funds by the Agassi household to finance a couple of of his first actual property initiatives, Tami claimed in court docket docs stemming from a civil lawsuit she later filed towards her ex in 2021 and obtained by The Submit.
Dargey’s enterprise was off to a golden begin because of his spouse’s monetary stability and the recognition of her final identify, she claims.
Following sizzling on the heels of the success of his first two initiatives, Dargey refinanced a property collectively owned with Agassi’s mother and father and diverted cash into his third enterprise enterprise, based on Tami’s 2021 lawsuit.
When her cash ran dry, he raised funds for his first large-scale initiatives by concentrating on her social circle, she additionally claimed in her swimsuit.
Tami’s civil lawsuit towards Dargey was dismissed with out prejudice on Feb. 22, 2022, which means she might refile it later — and he or she tells The Submit that’s what she plans to do.
In 2015, Dargey’s enterprise empire collapsed.
That yr, federal brokers raided his workplaces, seized the couple’s property and froze their enterprise ventures.
Dargey was accused of defrauding key worldwide traders by dishonest them out of thousands and thousands of {dollars} by way of the empty promise of a inexperienced card by way of the US authorities’s EB-5 Program.
In 2017, the then-43-year-old was despatched to federal jail on two federal felony counts of wire fraud and concealing info after he scammed over 280 traders from China out of $24.2 million, the Division of Justice mentioned.
He admitted to diverting thousands and thousands of {dollars} given by traders, together with the Agassi household, after coming into a plea settlement, court docket data obtained by The Submit present.
“This defendant stole not simply cash however one thing that he knew from private expertise was rather more precious — the best to come back to america and dwell the American dream,” US Lawyer Annette L. Hayes mentioned in a press release following Dargey’s sentencing in 2017.
Based on Tami, her mother and father, Emmanuel and Elizabeth Agassi, acquired one distribution in 18 years for his or her funding in Dargey’s enterprise.
“That’s what he did. He constructed your belief, that’s how he was capable of get cash out of you to speculate. However then he saved quiet on what was really being achieved with the cash,” Tami mentioned.
Tami says her celebrity brother Andre might scent Dargey’s intentions from the start of their relationship.
“I discovered after [everything that happened], Andre knew precisely who this particular person was the second he met him. However didn’t need to say it out loud. The remainder of my household wasn’t noticing that,” she shared.
“Andre didn’t have a number of interactions [with Dargey] as a result of I dwell in Seattle and Andre lives in Las Vegas,” she mentioned. “I believe that Lobsang was very disillusioned that he wasn’t capable of create the kind of relationship he would’ve beloved to have with any person like Andre. And that upset him.”
The tennis star declined to remark to The Submit.
After Dargey’s launch from jail in Jan. 2020, Tami filed for divorce — however solely as a result of he allegedly informed her it might shield her and their kids financially.
“He gave the divorce based mostly on belief that we’ll rebuild for the household and informed me that is what I needed to do,” she mentioned, including that he was going through greater than $24 million court-ordered restitution obligation.
“This isn’t cash that ever hit my checking account. I didn’t dwell giant. However I didn’t signal it as a result of I didn’t perceive it. He screwed me.”
Tami was dealt recent hell final yr after lodge big IHG slapped her — and her scandal-scarred ex-husband — with a $2.7 million lawsuit in reference to a private mortgage assure for a luxurious lodge that was attributable to be inbuilt a elaborate downtown Seattle high-rise.
The high-rise, initially named the Potala Tower, was not constructed attributable to Dargey’s authorized troubles. After combating to dam the federal government’s bid to fireplace sale the mission, the tower mission was in the end taken on by different builders, nonetheless, a distinct lodge model was chosen.
“He introduced house papers for me to signal, as all the time, and I signed them whereas my life was in chaos with newborns not realizing he was committing federal crimes on the time,” she mentioned, referring to the private assure type that she had signed below Dargey’s instruction following his conviction.
“My crime on this complete IHG lawsuit is that I didn’t lawyer up towards my husband after I signed each doc he gave me.”
IHG declined to remark.
“Mr. Dargey’s guarantees of future monetary assist are nothing greater than phrases,” Brian Muchinsky of Illuminate Regulation Group in Bellevue, and civil lawyer for Tami, informed The Submit. “His previous and current conduct exhibit obstruction to not solely requests for assist, however fundamental info.”
Tami revealed that she faces chapter if IHG’s lawsuit prevails.
“I’ve been residing like this for years. I’m resigned to the truth that I’m possible going to lose my home. I owe over $3 million in again taxes for unrealized features,” she mentioned.
Requested if her well-known brother might foot the invoice, Tami says that choice is a no-go.
“I’ve been a burden sufficient to [Andre]. I shouldn’t proceed being a burden. It’s not OK. I’ve to battle for myself,” she mentioned.
The Submit has reached out to Dargey’s authorized reps for remark.
Quickly after Tami’s divorce from Dargey was finalized in July 2020, she found that he was as soon as once more a married man.
“Not solely did he not invite the youngsters to the marriage, he didn’t inform his kids he was married,” she mentioned of her ex. “Then he launched them to a stranger as [a] secret second mother.”
“I’ve to work actually onerous to let my children know this isn’t regular,” she added. “This isn’t what a dad is. I’ve to ensure they know that.”
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