Eleven defendants – including two foreign nationals – were arrested today on a 15-count federal indictment charging them with executing a scheme in which they allegedly stole the identities of elderly victims, used that information to obtain title reports for residential properties, then solicited millions of dollars in hard money loans from private lenders by falsely representing the loans as being secured by the elderly victims’ properties.
The criminals allegedly tried to take $17.4 million, but the total actual loss is about $6 million.
The following defendants were arrested this morning and all but two of them are expected to be arraigned this afternoon in the United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles:
- Nazaret Chakrian, 65, a.k.a. “Niko,” of Hollywood;
- Arnold Moradians, 57, a.k.a. “Julian,” of Hollywood, an Iranian national who has an outstanding warrant for removal from the United States;
- Avetis Hekimyan, 38, a.k.a. “Chef Avo,” of North Hollywood;
- Ross Tarkhan, 32, of Glendale;
- Tigran Hovanesian, 56, of Glendale;
- Armen Vardevaryan, 55, a.k.a. “Gonch,” of North Hollywood;
- Craig Higdon, 66, of Naples, Florida, who will make his initial appearance in the Middle District of Florida;
- Helen Spangler, 62, of Oakdale, California, who will make her initial appearance in the Eastern District of California;
- Victor Lossi, 43, of Thousand Oaks; and
- Marine Sarkisian, 49, of Hollywood, an Azerbaijani national and green card holder.
The following defendant arrested today is expected to be arraigned tomorrow in Los Angeles federal court:
- Cynthia Borjas, 51, of Koreatown.
All defendants except Hovanesian are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and seven counts of wire fraud. Chakrian, Moradians, Borjas, Hekimyan, Tarkhan, Spangler, Lossi, and Sarkisian are charged with one count of aggravated identity theft. Chakrian, Moradians, Tarkhan, and Hovanesian are charged with one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Tarkhan is further charged with five counts of money laundering.
Hellbound and Down 