Mihran Melkonyan, Wire Fraud, CA 2024

Sacramento man Mihran Melkonyan, 36, was found guilty Tuesday on 24 counts of wire fraud and two counts of mail fraud in a sweeping $3.4 million scheme to defraud American Express and thousands of cardholders nationwide. The conviction, handed down after a four-day trial, marks the latest fall in a criminal operation that exploited stolen student identities and phony online storefronts to siphon millions from unsuspecting victims.

Prosecutors say between October 5, 2011, and March 5, 2014, Melkonyan partnered with Rouslan Akhmerov, 42, of Studio City, and others to create 68 fake online businesses—names like CVS Store, Walt Mart, and Chevran—using stolen personal data harvested from over 200 report cards taken from the San Juan Unified School District. Those documents contained names and Social Security numbers of students, which the group used to forge business registrations and open merchant accounts with American Express.

Once the accounts were active, Melkonyan and co-conspirators—including operatives in Russia—began processing fraudulent charges using approximately 119,000 stolen credit card numbers. American Express deposited funds into the fake merchant accounts as if real transactions had occurred. Melkonyan then funneled the money into bank accounts opened under false identities, some set up by foreign J-1 visa students who were later cut off once they left the U.S.

Co-defendant Ruslan Kirilyuk, 39, of Beverly Hills, failed to appear for trial and now faces a bench warrant for his arrest. His charges remain allegations; he is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Akhmerov, however, already pleaded guilty on December 15, 2014, to one count of access device fraud and is scheduled for sentencing on March 21, 2017.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation led the investigation into the scheme, exposing a transnational network that relied on identity theft, digital deception, and offshore coordination. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Michael D. Anderson and Matthew M. Yelovich prosecuted the case, painting Melkonyan as a central architect of the fraud operation that victimized cardholders across the country.

Melkonyan now awaits sentencing before U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. on May 5, 2017. He faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each of the 26 counts. While the statutory maximum looms, the actual sentence will be determined by the court, guided by federal sentencing guidelines and statutory factors weighing the scale of the crime.

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