A Los Angeles fugitive who faced more than a decade in prison for an $18 million pandemic aid scam was extradited Monday from Montenegro to the United States, according to Montenegrin police.
The U. S. Marshals Service arrested Tamara Dadyan, 41, at the airport in Podgorica, Montenegro’s capital, police said.
Dadyan admitted in June 2021 that he had served as the deputy leader of his brother-in-law, Richard Ayvazyan, in a scam to raise millions of dollars in bailout loans in the early weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic. more than 150 loans to the most commonly fictitious businesses in the San Fernando Valley.
After Dadyan pleaded guilty to three crimes, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, U. S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson sentenced her in December 2021 to 10 years and 10 months in prison.
Prosecutors suggested Wilson lock her up immediately, saying she had “every interest” in fleeing and could enroll his fugitive in-laws, Ayvazyan and his wife, Marietta Terabelian, abroad.
But the sentencing ruling let Dadyan loose for more than seven weeks to get his affairs in order. On the day he was due to report to prison, he disappeared, leaving two teenage women at his home in Encino.
Traveling on a fake British passport with the false identity of Isabella Angela Adamos, Dadyan flew to Montenegro, where Ayvazyan and Terabelian, also convicted of the scam, lived under false names in Tivat, a luxury beach resort.
When Dadyan joined them in February 2022, Ayvazyan and Terabelian, who had abandoned 3 teenagers for Tarzana, were living in a rented beachfront villa with a pool in the picturesque Bay of Kotor on Greece’s Adriatic coast.
Ayvazyan and Terabelian had been living the best life clandestinely for more than five months, but Dadyan’s fugitive life lasted a few weeks. created as part of the pandemic scam.
Montenegrin police arrested Terabelian at a hairdresser in Tivat and then captured Ayvazyan and Dadyan hours later in Budva, a nearby coastal town.
Ayvazyan and Terabelian were extradited in November. Ayvazyan is serving a 17-year sentence and Terabelian is serving a six-year sentence.
Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the U. S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, declined to comment on Dadyan’s extradition.
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Michael Finnegan is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times who covers the federal courts and law enforcement. In the past, he covered national and national politics, adding the 2020 presidential campaign.
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