Three members of L.A. family behind $18-million COVID-19 relief scam captured in Europe

A Tarzana couple and a member of the family who operated a large COVID-19 reduction fraud ring have been captured in Montenegro after fleeing america, a legislation enforcement supply confirmed to The Occasions on Wednesday.

Nicole Navas Oxman, a spokesperson for the U.S. Division of Justice, advised The Occasions that federal authorities are looking for the extradition of Richard Ayvazyan; his spouse, Marietta Terabelian; and his sister-in-law Tamara Dadyan.

Ayvazyan, 43, and Terabelian, 37, sliced off their digital monitoring bracelets and vanished in August after they had been convicted in June.

Ayvazyan was sentenced in absentia to 17 years in jail for main a fraud ring that stole $18 million in a rip-off to safe emergency pandemic loans meant for small companies upended by lockdowns. His spouse was sentenced to 6 years.

Dadyan, the spouse of Ayvazyan’s youthful brother, vanished Jan. 28, after U.S. District Choose Stephen V. Wilson gave her 30 days to show herself in, over the objections of federal prosecutors who mentioned that they had no religion she may very well be trusted to give up. She had been sentenced to 10 years and 10 months in jail.

Their seize in Europe was first reported Wednesday by NBC Information.

The three are amongst eight convicted conspirators within the scheme, authorities mentioned.

The group filed 151 fraudulent functions for loans that had been supposed to maintain small companies nationwide from collapsing through the preliminary lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic, prosecutors mentioned.

The household fraud ring created sham companies to get most of the loans, attaching pretend payrolls and cast tax returns to the functions. To open financial institution accounts for the companies, they used the names of individuals whose identities had been stolen.

They spent the stolen cash lavishly, prosecutors mentioned. In June 2020, Ayvazyan and Terabelian used $640,000 in pandemic catastrophe loans to purchase a $3.25-million hillside home in Tarzana, a Mediterranean-style villa with panoramic views.

When federal brokers in fight gear raided the two.6-acre property in November 2020, Terabelian, who was out on bail, dashed out the again door and hurled a grocery bag into the bushes, prosecutors mentioned.

Brokers fetched the bag and emptied it, and stacks of money tumbled onto the garden — about $450,000.

A jury determined the federal government may confiscate the home, the money, gold cash, diamond earrings, wristwatches and different property acquired with the pandemic enterprise loans that had been supposed to avoid wasting jobs — together with a $35,000 Rolex that Ayvazyan purchased whereas on vacation within the Turks and Caicos Islands.

In textual content messages, Dadyan and her brother-in-law mentioned tips on how to create phony payroll studies and invent employer identification numbers that might look reliable to authorities mortgage screens.

FBI brokers who raided the Encino home of Dadyan and her husband discovered pretend identification paperwork, bank cards for phony companies, checkbooks within the names of fraudulent mortgage candidates and notary stamps and seals belonging to state and federal courts.

Dadyan pleaded responsible in June to aggravated identification theft, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and financial institution fraud, and conspiracy to commit cash laundering. She named her husband and his brother as co-conspirators. Her husband, Artur Ayvazyan, in flip blamed Dadyan for the fraud when he took the stand at his trial.

Artur Ayvazyan was convicted and sentenced to 5 years in jail. He turned himself in on Jan. 28, the day his spouse absconded.