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According to prosecutors, a couple convicted of planning to spend $ 20 million on the COVID relief fund escaped the trial.
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Authorities said they used the deceived money to buy mansion, jewelery and luxury goods.
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The two left behind their three children and left a note saying, “Take a short break with each other.”
A California couple who carried out a plan to steal millions of COVID-19 relief funds cut an electronic bracelet, fled while waiting for imprisonment, and abandoned three teenage children. Authorities said on Tuesday.
Richard Ivazian (43) and his wife Marietta Terraberian (37) suffer from small businesses and pandemics using fake identities such as the names of seniors, deceased, and international students who have left the United States. I have requested money to help people. The federal prosecutor said.
Ayvazyan has filed about 150 fraudulent loan applications together, recruiting several others who have already been sentenced and planning to raise $ 20 million in funding per prosecutor.
The prosecutor said the couple then used cash to buy luxury homes in Talzana, Glendale, and Palm Desert, and luxury items such as gold coins, jewelry, luxury watches, designer handbags, and Harley-Davidson motorcycles. ..
Artur, brothers of them and Ayvazyan, Convicted on June 25 Transfer fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
On August 29, the couple ran away and left notes for their children. The LA Times reported.
“We will be together again someday. This is not a goodbye, but a short break for each other,” they wrote.
On Monday, the pair was sentenced by US District Judge Stephen V. Wilson in absentia. Judge Stephen V. Wilson sentenced Ivazian to 17 years in prison and Terrabellian to 6 years in prison. Artur Ayvazyan was awarded in federal prison for five years.
According to the LA Times, the couple’s teens were visibly upset when they heard the rulings of their parents and uncle in court on Monday.
According to Ayvazyan’s lawyer, the three, 13, 15, and 16 years old, live with their grandparents. The New York Times reported.
At the hearing of the ruling, Judge Wilson called Ivazian “endemic and ruthless scammer, regardless of law.” He said he couldn’t remember the fraud cases that took place in such a “ruthless and deliberate way.” According to a statement from the Justice Department.
“Given the opportunity, he plots another scam, because his way of talking about this scam shows that it’s his way of life,” the LA Times Judge Wilson said. The official said.
Ashwin J, Ayvazyan’s lawyer. Ram, Ayvazyan should be sentenced to six years in prison, and due to the absence of a convicted scammer, according to the LA Times, he is a family man, attends church, and is a legitimate businessman. He said it was difficult to show the judge that there was something.
He also stated that the couple’s family believed they were not captured and were kidnapped by conspirators who tried to silence them. For each CNN.
Ram did not immediately respond to the insider’s request for comment.
Ryan Fraser, a Terraberian lawyer, described her in an email to the insider as “a loving mother and devoted wife who has constantly supported not only her three children, but also her parents, stepmother and sister.” Did.
“Judge Wilson recognized this in his decision and imposed less than one-third of the time the prosecutor sought a memorandum,” he added.
Meanwhile, the FBI is rewarding $ 20,000 for information that could lead to arrests. Ayvazyan When Terraberian.
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