A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City returned an indictment, unsealed Friday, charging a California businessman with conspiracy to defraud the IRS, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and money laundering, officials stated.
According to the indictment, from 2013 to 2020, Grigor Termendjian of Los Angeles conspired to defraud the IRS by hiding $38 million of taxable fraud.
Grigor Termendjian and others laundered through international and domestic bank accounts.
The funds involved in the money laundering transactions from an alleged scheme orchestrated in Utah by Termendjian’s brother, Levon Termendzhyan, aka Lev Aslan Dermen; Jacob Kingston; and others.
Termendjian allegedly sought with his co-conspirators to disguise control of the $38 million by engaging in financial transactions that had no legitimate business purpose.
The indictment charges that they created bogus loan agreements, falsely characterized the transfer of fraud proceeds as share purchases or investments, and used shell accounts to conceal and disguise the nature, location, source, ownership, and control of the money.
Some of the transactions allegedly involved withdrawing funds to purchase cashier’s checks.
On one occasion, Termendjian allegedly withdrew over $41 million to purchase two cashier’s checks that he held for several months outside the U.S. financial system.
IRS Criminal Investigation and the Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division investigate the case.
Senior Litigation Counsel John E. Sullivan and Trial Attorneys Richard M. Rolwing and Erika V. Suhr of the Justice Department’s Tax Division are prosecuting the case.