Pooroushasb “Peter” Parineh is in jail awaiting a murder trial this coming October. He is accused of killing his wife for her $31 million in insurance money, according to the lawsuit filed by the children.
The children are suing for an unspecified sum in compensation for the death of their mother, Parima Parineh, the suit says.
Peter Parineh has been charged with the April 2010 shooting and killing of his wife in their San Mateo mansion, south of San Francisco, during a desperate attempt to right his ruined finances.
Austiag Hormoz Parineh, a son who lives in Orange County, as well as San Francisco residents Austiaj Parineh, a daughter, and Khashayar Parineh, a son, are also seeking punitive damages from their father. Punitive damages are monetary awards that punish people for malicious wrongs.
Prosecutors say Parineh fired two shots into his wife’s head and then called police to report that she had committed suicide.
Parineh, a real estate investor, hoped to collect insurance money that would pay off about $14 million in debt that piled up after the economy hit the skids in 2008.
Parineh’s children say their mother, an artist who emigrated from Iran as a young woman, survived her wounds for a time before dying as a direct result of their father’s actions. Police have said that Parineh told his daughter he’d shot her mother, but only as an act of mercy.