{"id":52338,"date":"2023-02-28T10:29:26","date_gmt":"2023-02-28T18:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=52338"},"modified":"2023-02-28T10:29:26","modified_gmt":"2023-02-28T18:29:26","slug":"co-leader-of-covid-19-loan-fraud-ring-extradited-from-montenegro","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=52338","title":{"rendered":"Co-Leader of COVID-19 Loan Fraud Ring Extradited from Montenegro"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A California woman who fled to Montenegro to avoid serving a lengthy prison sentence has been returned to the United States after spending approximately one year as a fugitive, officials stated.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tamara Dadyan, 43, of Encino, was extradited by Montenegro and arrived in Los Angeles Monday evening. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"According to court documents, Dadyan was a member of a Los Angeles-based fraud ring who engaged in a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $20 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) COVID-19 relief funds. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dadyan and her co-conspirators used dozens of fake, stolen, or synthetic identities \u2013 including names belonging to elderly or deceased people and foreign exchange students who briefly visited the United States years ago and never returned \u2013 to submit fraudulent applications for approximately 150 PPP and EIDL loans.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dadyan and her co-conspirators also submitted false and fictitious documents to lenders and the Small Business Administration (SBA) to support the fraudulent loan applications.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"This includes fake identity documents, tax documents, and payroll records. Dadyan and her co-conspirators then used the fraudulently obtained funds as down payments on three luxury homes in California. <\/span><\/p>\n

They also used the funds to buy gold coins, diamonds, jewelry, luxury watches, designer handbags, cryptocurrency, securities, and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.<\/span><\/p>\n

In June 2021, Dadyan pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and one count of aggravated identity theft. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"She was sentenced in December 2021 to 10 years and 10 months in prison.<\/span><\/p>\n

In January 2022, Dadyan fled the United States. U.S. authorities determined Dadyan had fled to Montenegro, where she joined Richard Ayvazyan and Marietta Terabelian, two other participants in the scheme and conspiracy who also fled after their convictions. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ayvazyan and Terabelian, sentenced to 17 years and six years in prison, were extradited to the United States from Montenegro in November 2022.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Government of Montenegro, including the Ministry of Justice, provided significant assistance in the extradition of Dadyan to the United States. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Justice Department\u2019s Office of International Affairs also provided substantial assistance in securing the arrest and extradition of Dadyan.<\/span><\/p>\n

The FBI Los Angeles Field Office, IRS-CI, SBA-OIG, and FHFA-OIG investigated the case. The U.S. Marshals Service transported Dadyan from Montenegro to the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trial Attorney Christopher Fenton of the Criminal Division\u2019s Fraud Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Brian Faerstein and Scott Paetty for the Central District of California are prosecuting the case. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Fraud Section leads the Criminal Division\u2019s prosecution of fraud schemes that exploit the PPP. <\/span><\/p>\n

Since the inception of the CARES Act, the Fraud Section has prosecuted more than 200 defendants in more than 130 criminal cases. <\/span><\/p>\n

It has seized over $78 million in cash proceeds derived from fraudulently obtained PPP funds and numerous real estate properties and luxury items purchased with such proceeds.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice\u2019s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at\u00a0https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/disaster-fraud\/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A California woman who fled to Montenegro to avoid serving a lengthy prison sentence has been returned to the United States after spending approximately one year as a fugitive, officials stated. Tamara…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nCo-Leader of COVID-19 Loan Fraud Ring Extradited from Montenegro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A California woman who fled to Montenegro to avoid serving a lengthy prison sentence has been returned to the United States after spending approximately\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=52338\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Co-Leader of COVID-19 Loan 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