The FBI tweeted late Tuesday that it’s looking for a fugitive couple the agency says “cut” off their monitoring bracelets and fled while awaiting sentencing for orchestrating a $21 million pandemic relief scam.
In June, 43-year-old Richard Ayvazyan and 37-year-old Marietta Terabelian were convicted of fabricating a network of San Fernando Valley businesses to get loans under the Paycheck Protection and Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs. They were scheduled to be sentenced on October 4 in L.A.
(Corrected) Richard Ayvazyan, 43, & Marietta Terabelian, 37, were found guilty in $21 million bank/SBA fraud & are set to be sentenced. The pair allegedly cut monitoring bracelets & are considered fugitives. Please call 3104776565 if you have info as to their location #TipTuesday pic.twitter.com/pyyGOMiVF4
— FBI Los Angeles (@FBILosAngeles) September 1, 2021
According to CBS L.A., Ayvazyan and Terabelian used false identities to submit fraudulent applications for loans, submitted phony documents to lenders and the Small Business Administration, and used the money they got to buy jewelry and several luxury homes, including a $3.32 million house in Tarzana.
“They have international ties as well as local ties but we’re not ruling anything out as to where they may have fled,” FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller told the L.A. Times.
The feds are asking people to call (310) 477-6565 with tips.
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