TWO MEN CONVICTED IN ARMENIAN POWER CASE, EACH SENTENCED TO QUARTER CENTURY IN FEDERAL PRISON FOR ORCHESTRATING FRAUD SCHEME
JUSTICE DEPARTMENT DOCUMENTS AND PUBLICATIONS
November 28, 2012
U.S. Attorney’s Office November 28, 2012
Central District of California (213) 894-2434
SANTA ANA, CA–Two men who orchestrated an elaborate identity theft
scheme from behind the walls of a state prison were sentenced today
by a federal judge who ordered both men to spend 25 years in federal
prison.
The two men were the lead defendants in one of two federal indictments
that targeted the Armenian Power gang two years ago. According to the
fraud indictment issued by a grand jury in Orange County, members of
Armenian Power worked with members of African-American street gangs
and bribed bank insiders to gather information that allowed them to
take over bank accounts in a scheme that caused losses of at least
$8 million.
Today in federal court, United States District Judge David O. Carter
sentenced the masterminds of the Orange County scheme and said this
case involved one of the most sophisticated fraud schemes he had
ever seen.
The two defendants sentenced today were:
Angus Brown, also known as “Homicide,” 36, who is described in court
papers as a “career criminal and identity thief” with numerous prior
conviction and was serving time for identity theft when he engaged
in the identity theft scheme that led to this case; and
Arman Sharopetrosian, also known as “Horse,” 33, of Burbank, a member
of the Armenian Power criminal enterprise who was serving a 10-year
sentence for shooting at an occupied vehicle and carrying a concealed
weapon when he committed the federal fraud offense.
Brown and Sharopetrosian were convicted earlier this year of
leading the identity theft ring from Avenal State Prison. Brown and
Sharopetrosian were the main defendants in an indictment unsealed
in early 2011 that charged 20 defendants for their roles in the
conspiracy that targeted hundreds of victims and caused millions of
dollars in losses.
According to court documents and the evidence presented at
Sharopetrosian’s trial last spring, Sharopetrosian and Brown organized
a scheme that misappropriated bank information from primarily elderly
victims and then forged victims’ signatures and deposited high-dollar
checks into accounts set up by members of the conspiracy. The scheme
recruited bank insiders to target individual bank accounts and to
illegally obtain confidential personal and financial information.
Prosecutors argued that the defendants intentionally targeted
older victims who would be less likely to become aware that their
identities were being compromised. In court papers, prosecutors wrote
that the defendants’ “express purpose was to target bank customers
with large-value accounts who were not proficient in checking up on
their accounts via the Internet” and that they “sought to use that
information to plunder the victims’ life savings.”
In March 2012, Sharopetrosian was found guilty of one count of bank
fraud conspiracy, four counts of bank fraud, and seven counts of
aggravated identify fraud.
Sharopetrosian was also named in a racketeering indictment returned
by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles that targeted the Armenian
Power gang. Sharopetrosian is pending trial in that case.
Brown pleaded guilty in December 2011 to conspiracy to commit bank
fraud conspiracy, bank fraud, and 17 counts of aggravated identity
theft.
All 20 defendants named in the fraud indictment have been convicted,
and most of them are scheduled to be sentenced by Judge Carter in
the coming months. The several other defendants already sentenced
have received sentences of up to 51 months in prison.
The case was investigated by members of the Eurasian Organized Crime
Task Force, which includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation,
the United States Secret Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations, the Los Angeles
Police Department, the Glendale Police Department, the Burbank
Police Department, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, and the
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.