A Southern California man could spend up to 30 years behind bars for defrauding the US government of more than $1.9 million.
Sarkis Garadzhyan and his co-conspirators have admitted to creating and operating fake businesses to fraudulently apply for federal pandemic relief program funds, reports NBC Los Angeles.
In his plea agreement, Garadzhyan says that he falsely claimed to have large payrolls at several shell companies and submitted forged documents to support the applications.Â
He and the other perpetrators used stolen identities to secure a $150,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan and a $929,433 Paycheck Protection Program loan.
They also took out a $842,666 PPP loan in the name of Arizona Hospice Inc., which the Bank of America later froze due to suspected fraud.Â
Court papers show that the defendant attempted to persuade the bank to release the money claiming that it was needed for payroll obligations despite the fact that the company had no employee
The Internal Revenue Service says Garadzhyan pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud.Â
Says Tyler Hatcher, IRS Criminal Investigation special agent in charge at the Los Angeles bureau,Â
“Mr. Garadzhyan deliberately stole from programs designed to keep American businesses afloat during a national emergency. Such blatant abuse of taxpayer-funded relief will not be tolerated. The men and women of IRS-CI will continue to pursue criminals who exploit pandemic relief funds.”
Garadzhyan is scheduled for sentencing on March 2nd.
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