|
CITY COMMISSIONER ARRESTED FOR MONEY LAUNDERING
|
|
YOUR GLENDALE COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER is not about writing gossip or writing about one's personal life. The story about a Glendale attorney, Arthur S. Charchian, was posted on the United States District, Central District of California website Friday, December 14, 2018. (please click the two attachment articles for more information). GLENDALE ATTORNEY PLEADS GUILTY TO USING CLIENT TRUST ACCOUNTS TO LAUNDER MORE THAN $500,000 GENERATED BY TAX FRAUD SCHEME and SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY PLEADS GUILTY IN $14 MILLION SCAM and Glendale News Press December 22-23, 2018 ATTORNEY ADMITS TO HIS PART IN SCHEME, by Andy Nguyen. What has drawn our interest to the above story is who appointed Mr. Charchian to THE DESIGN REVIEW BOARD, his prominence in Glendale politics and the comment by a city employee about Mr. Charchian's "fall from grace". Arthur S. Charchian, president of the Southern California Armenian American Democrat organization, pleaded guilty to money laundering and making a false statement to the Social Security Administration. According to his plea agreement, Charchian participated in a scheme from 2012 to 2015, in which he used two clients' trust bank accounts– which are supposed to be used by attorneys to segregate client funds from the attorney's money– to launder approximately $549,000 of proceeds generated in a massive "stolen identity refund fraud" (SIRF) scheme. At least 16 other people were also involved in the scheme. Charchian admitted in court he laundered checks that constituted the proceeds of bank fraud, tax fraud and identity theft. Charchian became involved in the underlying tax fraud scheme when banks flagged accounts being used by co-conspirators to the launder proceeds of the SIRF scheme. Federal officials said the scam included opening hundreds of bank accounts using stolen identities and fake passports for the Republic of Armenia. The accounts were then used to launder money from the IRS refunds that were issued based on falsified tax returns. Mr. Charchian's attorney, Mark Werksman, said his client learned he was a target of the investigators a couple of months ago and quickly moved to accept responsibility. Furthermore, Charchian stated he was unaware of the fraud scheme when he agreed to help the defendants. "Charchian was used as a pawn by the bad guys", said attorney Werksman. Judge Guilford scheduled a September 9. 2019 hearing to sentence Charchian, who faces a statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. The case against Mr. Charchian and the defendants in the SIRF scheme is being investigated by the IRS Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations. Mr. Charchian served on THE GLENDALE DESIGN REVIEW BOARD, having first been appointed to the position in 2014 by Mayor Zareh Sinanyan. Mr. Charchian's resignation from the board was announced during its December 13 meeting, a day before his guilty plea became public.
|
CITY PRINCIPAL PLANNER THANKED MR. CHARCHIAN FOR HIS FOUR YEARS OF SERVICE
|
|
Mr. Charchian was not present at the board meeting and no reference to his federal case was made when VILIA ZEMAITAITIS, the city's principal planner, made the announcement. "We wanted to thank him for his over four years of service, his dedication and his thoughtful comments," she said. "He was definitely an asset to the board, and we will miss him." According to the Glendale News Press story, no City officials responded to a request for comments by their staff reporter, Andy Nguyen. source : L.A.Times
|
