The San Diego City Attorney’s Office has filed a lawsuit against landlords connected to the Venetian Condos near UTC, accusing them of unlawfully holding onto security deposits paid by student renters. The civil complaint, filed Thursday, names Ali Ghorbanzadeh, the Ali Ghorbanzadeh Family Trust, and Sean Gorban as defendants and alleges violations of California’s Unfair Competition Law tied to how the landlords handled tenant deposits.
According to CBS 8, the lawsuit seeks civil penalties of up to $2,500 per violation, repayment to every affected renter — including people who never filed their own lawsuits — and a court order barring the defendants from making misleading statements to renters about deposits going forward. City Attorney Heather Ferbert said the complaint centers on two groups of four students, and described several of the deposit retentions as a clear violation of state law.
How the Case Reached the City Attorney’s Desk
Ferbert said her office opened its investigation after reviewing information gathered during CBS 8’s earlier reporting, which began in 2025. She said the office can step in when it sees a pattern of students being taken advantage of by the same person in the same building — the kind of repeated conduct that elevates individual tenant disputes into a civil enforcement case. The complaint follows accounts from several former and current UCSD students who, per a report carried on NewsBreak, alleged in court filings that a family owning multiple units at the Venetian wrongfully withheld their deposits.
One of those renters, Michael Aquilina, said he paid a $2,000 holding deposit in 2023 to secure a unit for his son. He accuses Ghorbanzadeh and Sean and Brian Gorban of wrongfully keeping that money. The Aquilinas said they never signed a lease, citing an issue with the contract they were sent, and Aquilina told the station he and his family have not gotten their deposit back. He is pursuing the matter separately in small claims court and said he hopes the broader case stops the same thing from happening to other students.
Landlords’ Response and a History of Disputes
Sean Gorban has defended the practice, saying the holding deposit was nonrefundable and reserved the unit for renters. When CBS 8 began its reporting in the summer of 2025, Ghorbanzadeh and the Gorbans initially declined interview requests, but they later addressed the allegations in a Zoom interview after the story aired that fall. During that interview, Gorban said the landlords had operated for 40 to 50 years without issues and that renters were held to nonrefundable contracts. The station’s report also notes that former tenants have previously won court cases against the Ghorbanzadeh and Gorban family over allegations that their deposits were wrongfully kept.
The Venetian has a documented history of internal disputes as well. Court records reviewed on Justia show Ghorbanzadeh owned 18 units at the 368-unit complex and joined its board in 2008; he and Sean Gorban then controlled the three-member board continuously from 2009 through at least 2021, a stretch during which the board repeatedly failed to hold annual elections. In 2023, the California Court of Appeal affirmed an order requiring the Venetian to hold a meeting to count 166 ballots cast during its January 2021 annual election. Separately, court records tracked on Unicourt show the state Department of Fair Employment and Housing filed a civil-rights lawsuit against The Venetian Condominiums Maintenance Corporation in 2017, naming Ghorbanzadeh, Gorban and the corporation as defendants; that case was later closed with the complaint dismissed with prejudice as to the named defendants.
What the Unfair Competition Law Allows
The lawsuit’s core legal claim rests on California’s Unfair Competition Law, codified at Business and Professions Code section 17200, which the California Legislative Information site defines as covering unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business practices along with deceptive or misleading advertising. That broad statute is what allows the City Attorney’s Office to seek penalties and restitution on behalf of renters who were never part of the original complaints.
The City Attorney’s Office is encouraging anyone who lost a deposit at the Venetian Condos to file a complaint with its Housing Protection and Civil Code Compliance Unit. According to the City of San Diego, that unit exists specifically to help ensure housing across the city is safe, fair and livable, and a city consumer guide posted by the San Diego City Attorney’s Office outlines how tenants can report repeated violations to that office.
