LOS ANGELES
A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportation officer was arrested Wednesday on federal “structuring” charges alleging that he made cash withdrawals and deposits totaling nearly $100,000 designed to circumvent federal reporting requirements.
Also to conceal assets from his then-wife, who was divorcing him.
Vardan Keshishyan, 47, of Glendale, has been charged in a federal grand jury indictment with two felony counts of structuring of currency transactions to evade reporting requirements.
According to the indictment, in January 2015, Keshishyan deposited approximately $96,369 into a bank account he solely owned and controlled.
That amount was the proceeds of the sale of the home he shared with his then-wife, who had filed for divorce two months earlier, according to the indictment.
In January and February of 2015, Keshishyan allegedly made 11 cash withdrawals, each of approximately $9,000, and ultimately totaling $99,400.
During one attempted withdrawal, a bank manager warned him that it is a crime to break up a transaction into small amounts to evade the $10,000 reporting requirement mandated by federal law, the indictment alleges.
After the manager informed Keshishyan that the bank would have to file a report to comply with federal law, he allegedly canceled the transaction and instead went to a different bank branch the same day to withdraw $9,000 in cash.
The indictment further alleges that Keshishyan lied under oath to the judge at a June 2015 court hearing in his divorce case, falsely telling the court he had lost $95,000 of the family home sale proceeds, in part, through a bad investment.
The court also told Keshishyan that the government “investigate[s]” repeated withdrawals of cash and warned him that transactions above $10,000 generate an “automatic notification.”
Despite these admonishments from the court and the bank manager’s prior warning to Keshishyan about structuring being a crime, Keshishyan allegedly structured $99,000 back into his bank accounts as soon as his divorce was nearly final.
On August 19, 2016, just one day after Keshishyan and his then-wife had reached an agreement regarding the terms of their divorce, Keshishyan deposited $9,000 in cash into a bank account that he controlled, the indictment alleges.
In January 2017, the month after final judgment was entered in the divorce, Keshishyan allegedly made 10 more cash deposits – each of approximately $9,000 – into two bank accounts that he controlled.
If convicted on both counts, Keshishyan is facing up to10 years in federal prison. He is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
DOJ NOTED:
This matter was investigated by Department of Homeland Security-Office of Inspector General.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsey Greer Dotson of the Public Corruption and Civil Rights Section.