Louis Opparizio

A. Louis Opparizio (b. 1960) was President of ALOFT (A. Louis Opparizio Financial Technologies), a foreclosure mill with 185 employees. He was born in Brooklyn, NY, and came to California to earn his law degree. In the financial crisis of 2007-2010 his company processed a large number of foreclosures for banks and mortgage lenders such as WestLand Financial. The company charged its clients $2,500 per filing and processed 16,000 cases per year, making Opparizio a very wealthy man.

In February 2001 he sold ALOFT to a larger, publicly traded company, LeMure, though Opparizio stayed on to manage the operation. Then things started to go sideways for Opparizio. Mitchell Bondurant wrote a letter to Opparizio expressing concern about allegations of improper practices made in a letter from Lisa Trammel. Shortly thereafter, a task force of federal agencies wrote a "target letter" to Opparizio indicating that they would be opening an investigation of him and his company. When Trammel was arrested and tried for the murder of Bondurant, Mickey Haller served Opparizio with a subpoena to testify.

Under questioning from Haller, Opparizio was forced to admit that his birth name was Antonio Luigi Apparizio and that he has family ties to known organized crime figures. He legally changed his name in 1980. His uncle was Anthony "the Ape" Apparizio, and his father spent many years in prison for extortion. Both were identified as members of the Gambino "family." Opparizio admitted that he had used his company's Information Technology department to track the activities of Trammel and several other people, including Bondurant. Haller also revealed that Bondurant had met with a representative for LeMure, possibly to discuss the letter from Trammel. At this point Opparizio decided to refuse to answer any further questions and was excused as a witness.