LOS ANGELES—A Glendale man was sentenced Oct. 30 to 6 1/2 years in federal prison for laundering at least $3 million in fraudulent unemployment insurance benefits that his accomplices obtained during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Arman Nikogosyan, 45, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge John F. Walter, who also ordered him to pay $3 million in restitution, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Mr. Nikogosyan pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to launder money.
Starting in 2020 and continuing until December of that year, Mr. Nikogosyan became a member of a conspiracy to launder fraudulently obtained jobless benefits. Mr. Nikogosyan arranged to receive the cash proceeds of the unemployment fraud scheme in which his co-conspirators applied for benefits in the names of other people and then used debit cards issued by a major bank to withdraw the fraudulently obtained funds.
In 2020, Congress expanded unemployment insurance benefit amounts and duration and expanded eligibility to more workers in response to the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mr. Nikogosyan knew the cash was proceeds from the jobless benefits fraud and had some of it deposited under assumed names, including those of shell companies. Mr. Nikogosyan then had the illicitly obtained funds sent abroad and used to purchase gold in order to conceal their source, ownership and location.
During the scheme, Mr. Nikogosyan laundered at least $3 million in fraudulently obtained proceeds that his co-conspirators brought to him in cash.
In December 2020, law enforcement seized nearly $195,000 in cash from Mr. Nikogosyan’s residence that was proceeds of the fraudulent scheme, according to papers filed in Los Angeles federal court.
“When confronted with the COVID pandemic that has claimed the lives of almost seven million persons worldwide to date, [Mr. Nikogosyan] instead saw an opportunity to bilk taxpayers out of the emergency funds their government generously made available to protect those who lost their jobs,” prosecutors argued in a sentencing memorandum. “Such criminal opportunism during a global health and economic emergency is egregious.”
- Arman Aghasinyan, 23, of Glendale, is serving a federal prison sentence of three years and 10 months for withdrawing for accomplices $2.9 million in bogus unemployment insurance benefits from ATMs.
- Arayik Avetisyan, 23, of Glendale, is serving a three-year term for withdrawing from ATMs $1.4 million in fraudulent unemployment benefits and delivering the cash to his co-conspirators.
