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LOS ANGELES, Nov. 19 (AP) — A Los Angeles couple who fled to Europe after being convicted of a fraud ring that stole $18 million in COVID-19 aid funds are being sent back to the U.S. to face legal issues, authorities announced Friday. Prison disaster.
Richard Ayvazyan and his wife, Marietta Terabelian, were extradited from the Balkan country of Montenegro where they lived at a luxury beach house in Montenegro before their arrest in February .
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They arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
While they were on the run last year, a Los Angeles court sentenced Ayvazyan to 17 years in federal prison and Terabelian to six years.
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Prosecutors said the couple and six accomplices fraudulently applied for about 150 relief loans aimed at helping businesses and employees struggling during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns.
Prosecutors said they applied using false identities or names of dead people, elderly people and foreign students.
In support of the application, they submitted false tax documents and payroll records from bogus businesses to lenders and the U.S. Small Business Administration, prosecutors said.
The money was used to pay down payments on mansions in the Tarzana area of Los Angeles, the Glendale suburbs, and Palm Desert, and to buy “gold coins, diamonds, jewelry, luxury watches, fine imported furniture, designer handbags, clothing, and Harley-Davidsons.” motorcycle,” a statement from the U.S. Department of Justice said.
Ayvazyan and Terabelian were convicted in June 2021 of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other federal crimes. Two months later, after being released on bail, the couple cut off their ankle monitors and fled, leaving behind their three teenage children, authorities said.
Unemployment fraud is a national problem during the pandemic, as claims for benefits overwhelm state unemployment agencies. Criminals are able to buy stolen identity data on the dark web and use it to make numerous false claims.
About $87 billion in pandemic unemployment benefits may have been improperly paid nationwide, with much of that attributable to fraud, the federal Labor Department said. A March 2021 Associated Press review found estimates ranged from $11 billion in fraudulent payments in California to hundreds of thousands of dollars in states including Alaska and Wyoming. (Associated Press)
(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)
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