SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS RADIO) – A California couple and their sister-in-law are currently in Montenegro’s Spuška prison, according to a joint investigation from the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro and the Los Angeles Times.
Richard Ayvazyan and Marietta Terabelian, along with Tamara Dadyan, have been convicted of possessing criminal documents, said the report. All three were sentenced to years in prison for a COVID-19 relief scam, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
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Before they were sentenced, Ayvazyan and Terabelian even cut off monitoring bracelets in August 2021 to go on the run and live a “lavish” European jet-set style life in scenic Montenegro. As of this March, they were awaiting extradition to the U.S.
U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson said he could not recall a fraud case conducted in such a “callous, intentional way without any regard for the law,” regarding the San Fernando, Calif., family’s COVID scam. They were part of a plan to scheme $20 million out of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program, which were established to help people struggling financially through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following an eight-day trial, a federal jury found them guilty last summer of one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud, 11 counts of wire fraud, eight counts of bank fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Ayvazyan and his brother Artur Avyazyan were also found guilty of aggravated identity theft, though Artur said in court that his wife, Dadyan, was “to blame for everything,” according to the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro reporter Miloš Rudović.
When Ayvazyan and Terabelian went on the run, they used Mexican passports and the names Roberto Nico De Leon and Natalie Rose Pérez Garcia, he said. The Federal Bureau of Investigation offered a $20,000 reward for information about their whereabouts as Ayvazyan founded a company in Montenegro and rented apartments in Porto Montenegro.
He and Terabelian took a private jet with the dog to seaside villa in the small Balkan nation located along the Adriatic coastline, according to Michael Finnegan of the Los Angeles Times. They had a BMW and a Range Rover shipped from Los Angeles to the home on the Bay of Kotor but left their three children behind.
“But in this remote Balkans outpost for the rich, it was not easy for a pair of California outlaws to blend in,” said Finnegan. Dejan Boljević of the Montenegro Police explained that “everybody knows everybody,” in their community.
According to Rudović, “the months-long idyll,” began to crumble in January, when FBI special agent Justin Palmerton noticed someone was accessing a bank accounts the bureau marked as suspicious via an IP address on the Montenegrin coast. Authorities in Montenegro began to investigate and by Feb. 22, had apprehended the couple, as well as Dadyan.
Finnegan said that Terabelian was found in a posh Tivat salon and that “a blockade of hair stylists,” tried to prevent her arrest as she was getting hair extensions. Within a few hours, Ayvazyan and Dadyan were arrested in the Budva hotel, a nightlife hub.
Now they are going through an extradition process. Ayvazyan has requested political asylum, but Terabelian has reportedly agreed to extradition.
“The cases are still in progress, before the criminal trial panel of this court, so no decision has been made on the fulfillment of the conditions for the extradition of the named persons,” Marija Raković from the High Court of Podgorica told the Center for Investigative Journalism of Montenegro. This was confirmed by the Ministry of Justice, said the outlet.
Back in the U.S., Ayvazyan, who was 43 years old as of last November, faces 17 years in prison and Terabelian, who was 37, faces six years.
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