The scheming California couple that stole millions in Covid-19 relief funds, cut off their electronic bracelets and fled from house arrest while waiting for their prison sentences.
Richard Ayvazyan (43) and his wife Marietta Terabelian (37) used fake identities to scheme money. Using the names of elderly, deceased people, and foreign-exchange students who had left the U.S.; they claimed money meant to aid small businesses and people from the pandemic.
Ayvazyan enlisted people who had already been sentenced and together the made about 150 fraudulent loan applications while calculating to take $20 million in funds.
The couple then used the money to purchase luxury homes in Tarzana, Glendale, and Palm Desert. They also purchased gold coins, jewelry, luxury watches, designer purses, and a Harley Davidson motorcycle; just to name a few of the many items.
The couple and Ayvazyan’s brother, Artur, were found guilty on June 25th of wire fraud, bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud.
On August 29th the couple fled under the disguise of night and left a note behind for their three teenage children.
The letter contained the words, “We will be together again one day. This is not a goodbye but a brief break from one another.”
On Monday, the pair was sentenced in absentia by US District Judge Stephen V. Wilson, who handed Ayvazyan a 17-year sentence and gave Terabelian six years in prison. Artur Ayvazyan was given five years in federal prison.
The couple’s children were “visibly distraught” in the courtroom on Monday as they listened to the judge sentence their parents and uncle, the LA Times reported.
The children (ages 13, 15, and 16) are currently living with their grandparents.
At the sentencing hearing, Ayvazyan was called an “endemic, cold-hearted fraudster with no regard for the law.” Judge Wilson said he couldn’t recall a fraud case conducted in such a “callous, intentional way,” a Justice Department statement said.
“If given the opportunity, he would concoct another fraud, because the way he spoke of this fraud indicates that that is his way of life,” Wilson said, the LA Times reported.
Ashwin J. Ram, Ayvazyan’s attorney, said his client should have gotten a sentence of six years at most, and that the convicted fraudster’s absence made it difficult to show the judge that he was a family man, churchgoer, and legitimate businessman, the LA Times reported.
He also said that the couple’s family believed they were abducted by coconspirators who haven’t been caught and sought to silence them, CNN reported.
Ram did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Ryan Fraser, Terabelian’s lawyer, described her in an email to Insider as a “loving mother and devoted wife who has tirelessly supported not only her three children, but also her parents, mother-in-law, and sister.”
“Judge Wilson recognized this in his sentence, imposing significantly less than one-third the time the prosecutors sought in their memorandum,” Fraser added.
In the meantime, the FBI is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Ayvazyan and Terabelian.
