Argishti Khudaverdyan, Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud, California 2017

LOS ANGELES, CA – A brazen scheme to illegally unlock T-Mobile phones, costing the carrier a staggering $25 million, has landed two former retail store owners in federal court. Argishti Khudaverdyan, 41, of Burbank, and Alen Gharehbagloo, 40, of La Cañada Flintridge, are facing multiple felony charges, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, computer fraud and money laundering.

The pair allegedly ran the operation from their T-Mobile premium retail store, Top Tier Solutions, Inc., in Eagle Rock Plaza during the first half of 2017. The indictment details how Khudaverdyan and Gharehbagloo exploited the carrier’s phone “locking” system – designed to keep customers tied to contracts – to unlock devices for a fee, effectively cutting off T-Mobile’s revenue stream from those accounts. They didn’t stop there, investigators say, also “whitelisting” or “cleaning” phones reported lost or stolen, allowing them to be reactivated and resold.

For over four years, between August 2014 and January 2019, Khudaverdyan and Gharehbagloo aggressively marketed their unlocking services through a network of brokers, email solicitations, and websites like unlocks247.com, falsely advertising “official” T-Mobile unlocks. The real dirty work, however, involved hacking into T-Mobile’s internal systems. Khudaverdyan allegedly obtained employee credentials through sophisticated phishing schemes, tricking legitimate employees into handing over their login information.

Using compromised employee credentials and tapping into T-Mobile store Wi-Fi networks, the duo gained unauthorized access to the carrier’s protected computers. This allowed them to bypass security measures and fraudulently unlock phones on a massive scale. The scale of the operation is staggering: investigators have traced more than $25 million in illicit proceeds directly back to Khudaverdyan and Gharehbagloo, money they allegedly used to purchase properties in Burbank, Northridge, and La Cañada Flintridge.

The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury on June 6 and unsealed today, seeks the forfeiture of over $2.25 million seized from bank accounts and the aforementioned properties. Khudaverdyan faces a potential sentence of up to 237 years in federal prison if convicted on all 17 counts, while Gharehbagloo could face up to 235 years on his 15 charges. Both men are expected to be arraigned this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. Remember, an indictment is not proof of guilt; each defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

The investigation was a collaborative effort led by the U.S. Secret Service Electronic Crimes Task Force (ECTF) in Los Angeles, with support from IRS Criminal Investigation and a multi-agency task force including the FBI, LAPD, LA District Attorney’s Office, and the California Highway Patrol. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jennie.

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