Just over a year after fleeing the country, a woman from Encino who was convicted of pandemic-related fraud returned to the United States.
Tamara Dadyan, 43, returned to Los Angeles Monday night after the U. S. government said it had been released by the U. S. government. The U. S. Department of Justice decided that she and two of her accomplices fled to Montenegro after their conviction, the U. S. Department of Justice said. The U. S. Department of Health and Prevention issued a press release.
Dadyan, Richard Ayvazyan and Marietta Terabelian were all in Montenegro after being sentenced to several years for securing more than $20 million in the COVID-19 relief budget for the paycheck coverage program and economic crisis loans, the Justice Department said.
With the budget of their scheme, which also referred to the submission of false documents to the Small Business Administration, the team “fraudulently received a quote in the form of initial invoices at 3 luxury homes in California,” the Justice Department said.
“They also used the budget to buy gold coins, diamonds, jewelry, luxury watches, designer handbags, cryptocurrencies, securities and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle,” he added.
Convictions for this scheme resulted in a sentence of 17 years for Ayvazyan, a six-year sentence for Terabelian and more than 10 years for Dadyan.
Ayvazyan and Terabelian extradited to the United States in November.
Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud related to COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Disaster Fraud Center hotline at NCDF’s online complaint form at https://www. justice. gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster Claim Shape.