Some news on the exactions perpetrated by the Armenian Organized Crime.

“Armenian Mob Imiplicated in Credit Card Scheme”
publication date: Jan 3, 2009
author/source: John Fredericks/ STAFF

This BP station on Haynes Bridge Road was ground zero for the perpertrators’ credit card scam.
By John Fredericks/ STAFF

Alpharetta is known for a lot of things: High-tech, high economic growth, great city planning, exceptional public schools and outstanding parks and recreation. Now two new objects of notoriety can be added to its rich history: The Russian mob and the Alpharetta cops who cracked them open.

It all started around late August when four alleged Russian gang members of Armenian descent, all of them likely near the bottom of the crime mob totem pole, descended on Alpharetta from Glendale, Ca. to set up crime operations. All four entered the country illegally. No one knows exactly how the four made their way into the U.S. But like the millions of other foreigners who are in America illegally, they did. Then they made their way to Alpharetta and rented two adjacent apartments at the Jameson Pass Alara North Point complex by North Point Mall. The four male suspects who leased the apartments are Karen Khalatayn, Ara Autuni, Boris Toumasian and Edmond Alexanyan. They are said to have used false names on their rental applications.

It is not plausible that the “gang of four” chose to lay down roots in this bedroom suburban community to start a new life, get jobs, pay taxes, and do volunteer work at the local church. Reasonable conjecture, based on the facts uncovered to date, strongly indicates someone probably sent them, bankrolled them, and managed them.

RUSSIAN AND ARMENIAN MOB ROOTS
During the 1970s and 1980s, under the guise of the Russian-Jewish refugee program, “The KGB emptied their prisons of hard-core criminals, much like Cuban dictator Fidel Castro did during the Mariel boatlift of 1980,” noted U.S. Congressman Dan Lungren (R-CA). “The 1989 Lautenberg Amendment expanded refugee admissions from the Soviet Union to up to 50,000 per year. This was followed, in 1991, by provisions for legal immigration from the now independent states of the former USSR.”

Dubbed by Russian criminals as "the big store," the United States is now home to criminal gangs from all 15 former Soviet republics, including Armenia. Since the mid-1970s, the hub of Russian organized crime in the U.S. has been the Brighton Beach area of Brooklyn, New York, known as "Little Odessa." From there they have expanded their operations to Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, Miami, Seattle, California, and now, perhaps, Alpharetta.

THE GLENDALE CONNECTION
The city of Glendale, where the suspected Alpharetta criminals are from, has the largest Armenian population outside of the Republic of Armenia. Several Armenian organized crime organizations have been fingered by the Feds, who say their most prevalent crime operations involve the control of independent filling stations, where they water down fuel sold to the public and skim profits and also participate in identity theft, credit card fraud, drug trafficking, extortion and kidnapping.

The federal economic stimulus plan might have unintended benefits for organized crime.

At least that's the assessment of experts who monitor groups like the Russian Mafia in Los Angeles County.

"They take advantage," said Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Larry Hastings. "The more money that's out there; if there's some type of scam they can get into, they'll go after it. If there's an angle they'll work it."

One suspect at an ATM machine

WHY ALPHARETTA?
Possibly looking to gain a foothold in the south, the alleged gang chose North Fulton County. Economically vibrant with the one of the highest household income levels in the southeast, this may have been a simple matter of financial demographics for the criminal network. If you are going to rob people, go where the money is, right?

In selecting their base of operations, maybe they looked at local law enforcement, too. Roswell PD, noted for its tough and dogged old school detective style, its vast network of snitches and informants and its propensity to bend the rules to apprehend its crime suspects at any cost could have proved worrisome.

Johns Creek has a plethora of cops they just hired with not much to do, as their crime is minimal, so they have a lot of time on their hands. Possibly Alpharetta, with a younger detective force and a revolving door of Police Chiefs until Public Safety Director Gary George arrived on the scene, may have looked liked a safer bet.

The other factor is the proximity to North Point Mall. The living quarters the suspects chose is right behind the mall, and with credit card fraud as their primary thievery, this may have made sense on the surface.

“They chose to live in close proximity to the mall because a big part of their criminal activity involved fraudulent gift cards,” said Alpharetta Public Information Officer George Gordon.

THE CRIME SCHEME
Khalatyan acted as the front man. He took a job as an hourly night clerk at the BP filing station at 11425 Haynes Bridge Road in Alpharetta, a few miles from his makeshift headquarters sometime in late August.

This may have been done for two reasons. The first is that the main revenue source the gang targeted was credit card forgery. The second is that one of the primary crime activities his alleged mob is involved in is gas skimming at local filling stations. So this was undoubtedly familiar territory to Khalatyan.

Once established, the suspects engineered an elaborate credit card fraud scheme they perpetrated on unsuspecting late night BP customers. This involved changing out the electronic credit card swipe machine when no one was around and replacing the BP supplied one with their own version by simply unplugging BP’s and plugging in their counterfeit replica. This bogus machine would do everything the BP device did, like send the funds to the BP clearing bank, print out a BP receipt and balance BP’s cash register. What it also did was capture the name of the card user, the credit card number and electronically encode the metallic stripping.

Each time a customer would buy something in the store with a credit or debit card, Khalatyan caught the information in his fraudulent machine. The suspect would ask the customer if it was a debit. If so, the user would then enter his or her pin number in the device, and Khalatyan would capture that too by using a small hidden camera.

Once they had a built up an inventory of new accounts, Khalatyan would take the gadget back to his apartment and his cohorts would replicate the debit or credit cards, right down to the magnetic strip and pin number. They would then go to area ATM machines, withdraw money from the victims’ accounts, buy gift cards or merchandise and the heist was on.

“They stole somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000 that we know of from at least 150 different victims,” said Gordon. “It is easily the biggest credit card fraud scheme in the city’s history.”

(Top) The suspects used credit card swipers like the ones above to enact their scheme. (Above) The suspects wore distinctive clothing that was caught on surveillance cameras.

Gordon added, “The crime operation was sophisticated, well organized and high-tech. The suspects had some of the most advanced credit card replication equipment we have come across and their duplication process was smooth and seamless. They knew this end of their business and they had to tools to pull it off.”

The suspects then began withdrawing money with their newly minted cards, mostly in odd amounts, between $100 and $400 and always ending with $1 or $3. One Alpharetta law enforcement official who is not authorized to speak on behalf of the department surmised, “The suspects probably banked on the fact that many affluent patrons would not notice the amounts withdrawn, or may have overlooked them in their bank statement, or thought maybe they took the cash out and forgot.”

This assumption soon proved folly and laid the groundwork for their eventual arrest. “The first case of fraud was reported to us in mid-September,” Gordon acknowledged. “A resident contacted us and said all her accounts were wiped out.” Alpharetta authorities said that after the first report, “another 34 similar thefts were reported over the next two months.”

The APD, now believing this was a huge organized crime effort, started to move in. The lead detectives assigned to the case were David Bochniak, a former FBI task force member and Mike Davis. Both are savvy veterans of the APD’s undercover Crime Suppression Unit (CSU). “They, along with their unit, cracked this case,” said Gordon.

COMMON THEMES
Detectives Bochniak and Davis asked the victims for their credit card statements and started looking for commonalities in the crimes. They uncovered three almost immediately. All the cardholders had money stolen out of ATM machines, most lived on the southwest side of town and all had at least one common transaction for the time period in question: a purchase at the BP station on Haynes Bridge Road.

“Many lived within 3-7 miles of each other,” one official confirmed. “One third of those robbed lived on Gardner Avenue alone.”

When asked why the suspects themselves didn’t figure out that their prevalent routine would have eventually led the cops right to them, one APD official who preferred anonymity opined, “They had a sophisticated operation but these weren’t the brightest guys. At the end of the day, they’re thugs.”

The BP station became the focal point of the investigation. Bochniak and Davis pulled the videos from the BP and all the ATM’s that were ripped off. “Each ATM video depicted one of the two same males making each withdrawal.” Unbelievably, the two video suspects wore unique pieces of clothing. “They both wore the same baseball caps every time, one with an Eagle emblem and one with an ‘AE’ insignia. One wore a very different kind of shoe and one wore a rare ring on his index finger,” said Gordon.

The videos led the CSU unit right to Khalatyan, who was hired unknowingly by a BP manager in the time period of the criminal activity. BP executives, when asked by The Beacon to shed light on their background check procedures for new hires, refused comment.

Cops, who said BP cooperated in the investigation, identified Khalatyan in both the gas station and ATM surveillance photos, and APD officials promptly looked into his background. They discovered two of the four suspects had priors in California – for credit card fraud, nonetheless. Bochniak and Davis’s unit then put Khalatyan on around the clock undercover surveillance. This effort, spanning several weeks, led to APD obtaining a search warrant from Alpharetta Judge Barry Zimmerman for the suspects’ two apartment units.

THE INNOCENT BOTCH
As CSU officers meticulously planned the execution of their search warrant, a wrench got thrown into their plans. An Alpharetta on duty police officer, not aware of the undercover operation ¬– which is standard operating procedure – made a routine traffic stop in the course of doing his job.

Unfortunately and unsuspectingly the cop pulled Khalatyan over for driving without lights on in the rain. Khalatyan could not produce a picture ID or a valid driver’s license. He then provided a fictitious name and false date of birth to the cop. When his info didn’t check out, the officer arrested Khalatyan on two misdemeanor charges, booked him and he got shipped to Fulton County jail after a short stay in the Alpharetta detention center.

Upon learning this, and fearing Khalatyan would tip off his cohorts, CSU moved up their timeline for the search and moved in. Their strategy was two fold: execute the search, arrest whoever was there if the evidence on the scene supported it and then get an arrest warrant from a Fulton County Judge before Khalatyan got out of jail. Timing now was imperative. And short.

THE BUST
Approximately 15 undercover cops circled the suspects’ Alpharetta apartments the night of December 10 and entered the units, warrants in hand. They hit the jackpot. After securing two of the four suspects, Ara Autuni and Boris Tousmasian, they seized $50,000 in cash, a plethora of sophisticated credit card encoding equipment, scanning devices, thousands of dollars in fraudulent gift cards and $10,000 worth of heroin and cocaine. No guns were found.

“This was a well financed operation,” said Gordon. APD is now guessing the suspects did not operate alone. The main theory being forwarded by the FBI is that they are foot soldiers in the Armenian mob based in Glendale, Ca. “They were very well organized,” commented one law enforcement official who is not authorized to talk to the media. “We are now looking into bank accounts they controlled, and it could lead much higher up the food chain. There is no telling where this may lead. There are much bigger fish here. We don’t believe they were working independently.”

“We were surprised at how brazen they were,” said Gordon. “Experience shows this would have been a quick hit – in and out in a few weeks. But they stayed.”

One official surmised they just got overconfident. “It was too easy for them.”

Some of the most incriminating evidence uncovered during the search included both hats the two men wore during every single ATM heist – with the same emblems on them. One official with knowledge of the scene said, “The unique clothing they wore – rings, hats and shoes, practically shouted, ‘catch me.’ Well, they got caught.”

The evidence uncovered during the search led to a Fulton County magistrate judge signing an arrest warrant for all four suspects that include 149 different charges each. “If convicted, they are looking at significant Federal prison time,” said Gordon. He emphasized that the successful arrests to date were a combination of, “Our residents – unfortunately victims in this case – coming forward and exceptional police work by our lead detectives and the entire CSU unit. They put in countless resources and man hours and got this done with persistence, professionalism and hard work.”

TWO THAT GOT AWAY
Tousmasian and Autuni were arrested during the search and are currently in jail. Alexanyan was not at the apartment at the time of the raid and is at large. Khalatyan, sadly, beat the clock. He managed to get released on a signature bond hours before APD got a Federal judge to sign the arrest warrants. One high-ranking official in Paul Howard’s Fulton County’s DA office who is not authorized to speak to the press said Georgia law prohibited him from being held longer than he was.

“He was booked on two traffic misdemeanors. The DA’s office had nothing to do with this incident. He took advantage of the law and simply signed himself out with a signature bond. This is a matter of just plain dumb luck for the suspect in question.”

Fulton County authorities said they could not hold him without a signed warrant for his arrest. An official in the Sheriff’s Department who preferred not to be identified simply said, “We go by the rules.” An APD official lamented, “We would have preferred his bond was put off until the last one of the night, but it is what it is. We have no control over what happens down there.”

Gordon had a different take. “He is at large, but not committing crimes in Alpharetta. We will eventually get him.” Gordon said both the FBI and Homeland Security are involved and there is a nationwide manhunt for both suspects, and no bonds will be issued. “I don’t know how he got in the country,” Gordon added. “But they can’t get out.

http://beaconcast.com/articles/20090103

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“Police say arrests linked to credit, debit card scam”
publication date: Mar. 26, 2009
author/source:Aantonio Planas/ Las Vegas Journal

Police say they seized money and property, including clothing and purses, gold jewelry and more than $100,000 in cash, at this house at 5564 Chicory Falls, near Tropicana Avenue and Fort Apache Road.
Photo by K.M. Cannon.

Three men with suspected ties to Eurasian organized crime were arrested in a fraud scheme this week, with authorities seizing $2 million in property from one southwest valley residence, Las Vegas police said.

The scam has multistate ties and is linked to at least two local businesses, police said.

Authorities have not determined how many people may have been defrauded by the suspects, who are accused of stealing people's personal information from credit and debit cards and using that data to make counterfeit credit cards. The scam is known in law enforcement circles as skimming.

Lt. Robert Sebby, with the Metropolitan Police Department's Financial Crime Bureau, said the scam has been going on in valley for about 18 months.

Sebby said a 10-week investigation led to the arrests and the seizure of high-end property including a Mercedes-Benz and a Rolls-Royce.

"We're still piecing together information to try and find out how many victims we have. It's now morphed into a bigger investigation involving other states and other people."

Sebby said $2 million in cash and property was seized from a home at 5564 Chicory Falls, near Tropicana Avenue and Fort Apache Road. In addition to the luxury cars, police confiscated expensive clothing and purses, gold jewelry and more than $100,000 in cash.

Sebby said it's too early to determine if police will be able to retrieve money stolen from victims because all the victims have not been identified.

Police arrested Hrachya Arakelyan, 22, Davit Kudugulyan, 38, and Arytun Khoudagoulian, 29, in connection with the scam.

Arakelyan was in the Clark County Detention Center on Wednesday afternoon on $6,000 bail. Information on the others was not available on the county jail Web site.

Police said the property was seized because it might have been gained from the proceeds of the scam.

Sebby said two suspects were arrested Monday and a third suspect was arrested Tuesday.

Sebby would not disclose the names or addresses of the businesses the suspects are linked with because the investigation is ongoing. He did say that one of the businesses was a smoke shop.

In December 2008, at least 20 people with Eastern European ties were arrested throughout the valley on state and federal charges that involved credit card fraud, forgery, money laundering and weapons violations. The men were accused of stealing identities and using fake credit cards or debit cards to withdraw money at casinos and defraud businesses.

Sebby said the men arrested this week might have ties to those arrested late last year.

http://www.lvrj.com/news/41881462.html