Arsen Khumaryan, Wire Fraud, California 2024

LOS ANGELES, California - Arsen Khumaryan, 41, the owner of a Glendale-based payday loan company, pleaded guilty to a federal criminal charge for defrauding money transmitting companies by failing to remit to them, as promised, nearly $1 million of wire transfers sent on behalf of his customers over just two weeks.

According to his plea agreement, Khumaryan advertised on social media that customers at his store could wire money, using MoneyGram and Ria, anywhere in the world without paying any fees, and could cash checks from Ria without fees during the upcoming Memorial Day weekend. However, Khumaryan admitted he knew that MoneyGram and Ria had not agreed to waive their wire transfer fees, nor had Ria agreed to waive its check-cashing fees.

Between May 23 and June 6, 2018, Khumaryan caused MoneyGram to send approximately $795,338 to recipients through its money transfer system. He also caused Ria to send 376 wire transfers totaling approximately $130,328 to recipients through that company's money transfer system. Khumaryan pocketed the customers' funds rather than remit them to the companies per his contractual obligations, causing the companies to lose more than $925,000.

In addition, Khumaryan knowingly caused 16 bogus checks totaling approximately $104,057 to be processed through Ria's money check-cashing system.

Khumaryan also admitted to submitting approximately $137,303 in fraudulent payments on personal credit cards issued to him by a business identified in the plea agreement as Company 3 by drawing against accounts he knew had insufficient funds to cover his payments.

The total losses in this case are $1,167,026, Khumaryan admitted.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Valerie L. Makarewicz of the Major Frauds Section. United States District Judge John A. Kronstadt has scheduled a January 28 sentencing hearing, at which time Khumaryan will face a statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/pr/glendale-payday-loan-company-owner-pleads-guilty-wire-fraud