ROUTINE BUSINESS: CREDIT CARD FRAUD AND MONEY LAUNDERING
Ararat Davtyan

2010/ 02/15 | 16:00

Retailers Found Guilty but Won’t Do Jail Time

Last year, Vardan Avetisyan and Vazgen Pkhrikyan, in two separate
cases, stood before an Armenian court, charged with bank fraud and
money laundering. According to the indictment, the two had illegally
copied "MBNA America Bank" cards to extract funds and then laundered
the stolen cash.

In both cases, the criminal charges were reviewed by the Department
of Investigation of the RoA National Security Service.

Vardan Avetisyan – furniture salesman cons banks out of 42 million AMD

A criminal case was initiated against Vardan Avetisyan on November
4, 2008. Four months later, the case has handed over to Kentron and
Nork-Marash District Court.

Vardan Avetisyan was the director of "Skava Ltd", a furniture
importer/exporter. The company’s furniture showroom is located on
Sasuntsi Davit Street in Yerevan. Armenia’s "Inecobank" entered into
an agreement with the "Skava" to install an automated teller machine
at the showroom. It was at this automated teller that Vardan Avetisyan
used the fake MBNA bank cards to withdraw 15.2 million AMD on November
2, 2008. Mr. Avetisyan then deposited the cash in an account he had
opened in Inecobank, under the name of "Skava Ltd.",

Fake American customer and passport

Later, Mr. Avetisyan finagled the books to make it appear that the
money had come from a sale of furniture to one "Jeffrey Parker", an
American citizen. During the pretrial investigation, Mr. Avetisyan
stated that on the day in question, "a foreigner used a bank card to
purchase furniture." Mr. Avetisyan said that he even compared the
customer’s signatures appearing on his passport and bank card. As
proof, Mr. Avetisyan provided investigators with copies of the
American’s passport and card.

However, an official at the RoA National Bureau of Expertises, a
State Non-Commercial Organization, concluded that the passport copy
was also a computer-generated forgery.

Store was closed on day on alleged furniture sale

Violeta Simonyan, who was working at the time at the furniture showroom
as a consultant, told investigators that it was just she and manager
Vahagn Hovhannisyan at the store from 10 to 7 daily. Simonyan said
that the showroom was closed on Sundays. (November 2, 2008, the day
of the alleged furniture sale to Jeffrey Parker, was a Sunday).

Simonyan also said that when she went to the showroom on Monday,
there were no changes in the floor samples.

Manager Vahagn Hovhannisyan told the court that half the showroom
would have been empty if 15 million AMD worth of furniture had been
sold. "We saw no such thing," he testified.

Vardan Avetisyan told the court that in 2008, on his way back to
Armenia from a business trip, he had made the acquaintance of one
"Hovik" in Italy. Hovik, according to Avetisyan, had no money
for a boat ticket, so he gave the man 600 Euros. Back in Yerevan,
Avetisyan met up with Hovik at the furniture store. Hovik returned
the money lent to him in Italy. They two became close friends. Hovik
propose to Avetisyan that he help out the businessman by rounding up
potential customers.

At the next sale, Hovik is to have said that one of the customers
wished to pay with a credit card. Later, Hovik is to have said
that there was a problem with some figure and that the transaction
couldn’t be completed. Thus he asked that the amount be returned and
he didn’t refuse and gave the automated teller receipt, not examining
the numbers. He trusted Hovik.

The next day, realizing that a sale didn’t take place, but that a
money transaction had been registered, Avetisyan decided to make an
accounting entry that would show that a transfer had been made form
his name to the company; showing a bank transfer from his account to
the partners and tax authorities. Avetisyan says that he has no idea
whose bank card Hovik used to make the transactions.

The National Security Service revealed that Vardan Avetisyan made
two illegal withdrawals back in September and October, 2008, as well.

Avetisyan is said to have used fake MBNA cards to withdraw money from
the teller machine at his store in the amounts of 12.367 million and
then for 14.780 million AMD. He deposited the funds in the "Skava"
account at Inecobank and devised an accounting entry to make it appear
that the money was personal capital invested in the company.

In the end, Avetisyan was able to illegally get his hands on 42.269
million AMD. He thus inflicted damage on customers of the American
bank and, indirectly, on Inecobank.

The preliminary investigation wasn’t able to explain where Avetisyan
procured the fake bank cards in the first place. Arman Mntasakanyan,
legal representative of Inecobank, told the court that Master Card, the
credit card company, was demanding that Inecobank return 3 million AMD.

Later on, the Inecobank representative stated that the true amount
of the loss was 1 million AMD and that it would be filing a civil
suit for that amount.

Vardan Avetisyan, a college graduate, declared his guilt in court,
expressed his remorse and returned all of the ill-gotten gains.

Throwing himself at the mercy of the court, he pleaded for a light
sentence.

Judge Zhora Vardanyan, taking into account that the accused was
married with three young children and that he had shown remorse
for his actions, concluded that his rehabilitation was possible by
conditionally not carrying out the sentence. Judge Vardanyan sentenced
Avetisyan to 8 years but then modified it to 4 years probation. The
court also sustained Inecobank’s 1 million AMD civil suit.

Vazgen Pkhrikyan: Shoe Salesman Pleads Innocent in 1 million AMD
swindle

Vazgen Pkhrikyan, the other individual in our story, appeared in the
same court and faced Judge Zhora Vardanyan as well. Pkhrikyan was
also charged with grand theft and laundering the funds.

According to the indictment, Pkhrikyan opened a commercial venture
selling shoes on a plot of land that he owned at the intersection of
Nor Aresh and Erebuni Streets in Yerevan. There was an Ararat Bank
automated teller in his store. Sales were transacted in cash as well
as bank card.

Grigor Tsolakyan, who headed the Ararat Bank’s Card Transactions
Division, testified in court that in October, 2008, he received a
memo from "Armenia Card" CJSC stating that a suspicious 1 million
AMD sale had been registered at the shoe store.

Hayastan Gasbaryan, a sales clerk at the store, told police that on
October 3 she was told by store manager Vazgen Pkhrikyan not to come
to work since they would be receiving an inventory shipment. Gasbaryan
testified that she knew nothing of the 1 million AMD in sales recorded
for that day. All she could tell the court was that on an average day,
during the hours she worked, the store made 25,000 – 30,000 AMD in
sales and that there was never a day when the store sold 1 million
worth of merchandise.

The preliminary investigative body charged Vazgen Pkhrikyan for using
a fake MBNA to defraud Master Card and Armenia Card of 1 million AMD.

The indictment goes on to claim that Pkhrikyan deposited the funds in
an account he opened at Ararat Bank under the name of "Ava Decor Ltd".

He then cashed the funds and entered the money as revenue in the
company register.

Pkhrikyan refused to offer testimony during the pretrial investigation
and in court; stating that he innocent of all the charges.

Nevertheless, he asked the court for clemency and to be pardoned.

Judge Zhora Vardanyan appears to have heeded his plea, sentencing him
to three years and then immediately pardoning him. Pkhrikyan strode
out of court a free man.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress