Who’s the diamond company CEO buying former Assemi farmland in west Fresno?
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- CEO of Malakan Diamond Co. bought 330+ acres of Fresno farmland lost by Assemis.
- Malakan had prior manager role in Assemi farming LLC, accused in lawsuits against family.
- Malakan is involved in various farming companies, other industries.
Court and state business records indicate the diamond company CEO behind the purchase of a massive piece of former Assemi farmland in southwest Fresno has for years been a business associate of the family, which lost the property during the federal lawsuits its facing over defaulted loans worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Nader Malakan, CEO of Fresno’s Malakan Diamond Co., started a new company in December that bought more than 330 acres of the Assemis’ former land in January known as Mission Ranch. Based on the transfer tax amount in the deed, The Fresno Bee estimates Malakan’s new company, Running Stallion Ranch LLC, spent $14 million for the land. The sale was made by a court-appointed receiver who has been overseeing transfers of the properties that the family is losing.
Malakan has not responded to multiple attempts to reach him, so it’s unclear what his plans are for the land or who else might invest in its future. Although it was farmed in the past decade by the Assemis, the space is residentially-zoned and amounts to a significant portion of land available for new housing in southwest Fresno — a part of town that historically has been neglected while other areas of the city boomed with new homes.
Apart from running a diamond business, business filings with the California Secretary of State show Malakan has an investment company and has been involved in various farming LLCs, at least some of them with members of the Assemi family.
Malakan has been listed in a filing as a manager of one of the family’s farming companies formed in 2020, Elevated Ag LLC. His position at that company has been a point of contention among some Assemi family members, who have in recent years sued each other in federal and state courts, with both sides alleging the other committed fraud. In one ongoing lawsuit — filed by Kevin Assemi against his father, Farid, and uncles, Darius and Farshid — Malakan is accused of acting as a “spy” for Farid at Elevated Ag.
Business filings show Malakan has also been involved in various other LLCs, including a company behind an agricultural research institute about which there is little information online. His diamond company, known for making customized jewelry, has been in his family for generations, according to its website.
Malakan did not respond Monday to The Bee’s request for comment about his business history with the Assemi family.
At one time, the Assemi brothers, Farid, Farshid and Darius, were among the largest nut growers in the region. But court documents reveal their once-thriving companies, Maricopa Orchards and Touchstone Pistachio Company, began struggling after a failed expansion attempt and other factors. More than $700 million in loans went unpaid, prompting several major lenders to take legal action to take control of the farming operation.
Darius Assemi is also known for housing development in the Central Valley through the Granville Homes firm, which he wholly owns today.
Lawsuits detail Malakan’s history as Assemi business associate
Kevin Assemi sued his father and uncles in December 2023, accusing them of pushing him out of one of their companies, Maricopa Orchards. He was assigned to lead Elevated Ag, but his uncles and others failed to contribute the capital they agreed to provide that firm, his complaint alleges.
That lawsuit also named Malakan as a defendant, alleging he “misappropriated” Elevated Ag trees and planted them on his own property. In the complaint, Kevin Assemi also alleges his uncle, Farshid Assemi, and Malakan “unlawfully attempted to appoint themselves as managers of Elevated” and then misrepresented the company’s majority ownership while they sought to obtain a $13 million loan.
State business filings show Kevin Assemi organized Elevated Ag in 2020 as a company with “more than one manager.” By February 2023, Farshid Assemi and Malakan were listed as the company’s managers in a state business filing. The following year, filings only listed Kevin Assemi as a manager and said the company would only have one manager.
Kevin Assemi’s complaint indicated he was initially OK with Malakan’s firm, Malakan Investments LLC, being a member in Elevated Ag. Later, Kevin Assemi learned Malakan had become involved “for the sole purpose of acting as a spy” for Farid, Kevin Assemi’s father, the complaint alleges.
Farshid and his attorney did not respond to a request for comment about the ongoing case Monday. The case is scheduled for a jury trial in Fresno County Superior Court later this year.
In a separate federal lawsuit, filed by Elevated Ag and Maricopa Orchards in November 2024, the family’s companies accused Kevin Assemi of “increasingly erratic” behavior in the years prior.
Their complaint accused Kevin Assemi of stealing $360,691 from Elevated Ag and of electronically altering documents to show that he was the company’s majority owner. That complaint said Elevated Ag’s other members removed Kevin Assemi as the company’s manager and appointed Farid and Malakan as managers. Kevin Assemi’s state business filings showing him as Elevated Ag’s sole manager “represent perjury,” that complaint said.
A federal judge dismissed that lawsuit last summer.
Malakan involved in various farming companies, research institute?
State business filings show Malakan is involved in at least five other farming companies as a member or manager. At one of them, AM Citrus LLC, a state filing from 2024 lists Malakan as a manager or member along with Darius Assemi.
Malakan also is listed as a member or manager of the Malakan Agricultural Research Institute LLC in business filing from 2024. The LLC was organized in 2020.
The Malakan Agricultural Research Institute, or MARI, appears to be based on a farm between Fresno and Kerman, but little information is available about it online.
The businessman also manages the Fresno-based Terra Firma Development LLC. He is also listed as a manager or member of Bellataire International, a diamond brand that Malakan Diamond Co. bought in 2019.
This story was originally published February 3, 2026 at 3:29 PM.
