“The great Turk is governing in peace twenty nations from different religions. Turks have taught to Christians how to be moderate in peace and gentle in victory.”Voltaire’s Philosophical Dictionary
The U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, explains the charges against the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian organization.
Last updated (GMT/UTC): 14.10.2010 07:58
By Nikola Krastev
NEW YORK — U.S. law enforcement authorities have announced charges against 44 members of an Armenian-American criminal syndicate in connection with the operation of more than 100 medical clinics that filed some $100 million in fake claims to a government health insurance program
The lead prosecutor in the case, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Preet Bharara, said the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian organization — which is named after its two alleged leaders, 35-year-old Davit Mirzoyan and 36-year-old Robert Terdjanian — employed threats, intimidation, and violence and operated in a classical mafia style:
“The reach of this organization stretches clear across the country and well beyond our shores. And so in terms of profitability, geographic scope, and sheer ambition this emerging international organized crime syndicate would be the envy of any traditional mafia family,” Bharara said.
Bharara said that the Armenian-American criminal group operated principally out of Los Angeles and New York but had offshoots in 25 states involved in extortion, credit card fraud, identity theft, immigration fraud, and even distribution of contraband cigarettes and stolen Viagra.
The indictment says most members of the organization were Armenian nationals or immigrants who maintained substantial ties to Armenia. In addition to regularly traveling there, they had criminal connections, transferred criminal proceeds to the country, and bought real estate and businesses with money from their illegal profits.
Armenian national Armen Kazarian, 46, is identified as the principal leader — the so-called “godfather” of the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian organization. The indictment identifies him as “vor v zakone,” or a thief in the law/code — a powerful figure in the criminal underworld of the former Soviet Union.
Kazarian immigrated to the United States in 1996 and has received asylum status despite frequently traveling to Armenia and Azerbaijan.
Prosecutor Bharara said the case is the second time a “vor v zakone” has been charged with federal crimes in the United States but the first time one has been charged with federal racketeering.
“In important respects, though, this organization was a far cry from the classic Cosa Nostra. For one thing, when it comes to making money illegally, this Armenian-American group puts the traditional mafia to shame,” Bharara said.
Lavish Lifestyles
Vaycheslav Ivankov — also known as “Yaponchik,” which means “Little Japanese” — a notorious Russian organized crime figure, was the first “vor v zakone.” He was arrested by the FBI in 1995 on extortion charges.
Ivankov was convicted and served nine years in a U.S. prison before being deported to Russia. He was gunned down in Moscow in October 2009.
Janice Fedarcyk, the assistant director in charge of the FBI office in New York, said that U.S. law enforcement authorities are always on the lookout for the next emerging criminal scheme, no matter where it’s coming from.
“This particular scheme did originate from areas in the former Soviet [Union]. Certainly the vor, the thief in law, has grown of interest to us with the dissolution of the USSR particularly because more information is now available and we are starting to see with the availability of international travel the expansion of some of those criminal schemes over to Europe and the United States,” Fedarcyk said.
In early October, U.S. law enforcement authorities announced the indictment of 73 individuals from Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Moldova, and Belarus who they accuse of participating in a complex Internet fraud scheme that targeted the bank accounts of U.S. citizens, businesses, and cities.
Prosecutors in the Armenian case are investigating whether any of the arrested individuals were in the United States illegally.
Bharara said almost all of the indicted individuals are from Armenia but wouldn’t say whether Armenian authorities are helping with the case, but said foreign authorities are usually willing to cooperate with the United States.
The indictment almost reads like a thriller, with lurid details of the criminal defrauding enterprise, the members’ posh lifestyles, and their expensive cars:
“The indictments in this case talk about phantom doctors, fancy cars, money laundering through [Las] Vegas casino chips, threats to disembowel rivals and more,” Bharara said.
“That’s the kind of material that makes a great movie. But this is no movie. It is very real and we are using every resource at our disposal and every tool we can find to prosecute those alleged international gangsters.”
New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the criminals conducted their business with remarkable efficiency.
“And even though it was a very lavish fraudulent scheme, it’s amazing how they were able to maintain a low overhead. They actually did an awful lot of their operations out of a very small office over an auto-body shop on Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn. And one woman, Galina Vovk was there from early morning to late at night [filling] out all of these [fraudulent claims],” Kelly said.
Galina Vovk is the wife of Robert Terdjanian, one of the principle leaders.
If convicted, the defendants face various sentences up to life imprisonment and up to $500,000 fine.
The office of the Armenian ambassador in Washington D.C., Tatoul Markarian, did not return repeated calls from RFE/RL seeking comment.
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Reputed Armenian gangsters, including ‘vor’ Armen Kazarian, charged in $100M Medicare fraud – NYPOST.com
Last Updated: 11:42 AM, October 14, 2010
Posted: 1:37 AM, October 14, 2010
Dozens of reputed Armenian gangsters were busted by the feds yesterday for a “smorgasbord” of offenses that includes the largest-ever Medicare fraud by a single crime syndicate.
The size and sophistication of the coast-to-coast scheme — which generated more than $160 million in bogus bills — “puts the traditional Mafia to shame,” Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara said.
The ring created at least 118 “phantom” medical clinics in 25 states that used stolen identities of doctors and patients to rip off more than $35 million in taxpayer funds.
Gregory P. Mango TAKEN ILL: Robert Terdjanian, an alleged ringleader in the massive Medicare fraud, is led to his arraignment yesterday in Manhattan.
In reality, most of the clinics were nothing more than rented Mail Boxes Etc. addresses, Bharara said.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said many of the fake invoices — which included forensic pathologists charging for live office visits, and obstetricians conducting allergy tests — were cooked up in an office above a Brooklyn auto-body shop.
Charges were also filed in California, Georgia, New Mexico and Ohio, alleging a total of $163 million in fraud by 73 defendants.
Those charged in New York include reputed crime boss Armen Kazarian, who holds the title of “vor,” which authorities said is similar to a Mafia godfather. Kazarian is the first vor ever charged with racketeering in the United States, according to the Department of Justice.
The 46-year-old resident of Glendale, Calif. — who drives a $350,000 Rolls-Royce Phantom — was secretly recorded making profane threats against “those who have failed to pay him or show him proper respect,” court papers say.
During one call on July 21, he allegedly ranted to an underling about someone named “Alik” who had called Kazarian while drunk.
“Find that son of a bitch. . . I am going to kick his ass,” court papers quote Kazarian as saying.
Also arrested was Robert Terdjanian, 35, of Brooklyn, who was described as the East Coast ringleader of a gang aligned with Kazarian.
Terdjanian, along with Davit Mirzoyan of Los Angeles, oversaw a multitude of schemes that included sales of illegal drugs, untaxed cigarettes and Viagra, authorities said.
The suspects allegedly laundered some of their dirty profits by purchasing casino chips in Las Vegas.
Another suspected scam involved co-defendant Aron Chervin, who allegedly recruited strippers to file false car-insurance claims.
Terdjanian — who was held without bail– was also accused of threatening to disembowel an extortion victim at a Brighton Beach restaurant in May.
Defense lawyer Scott Tulman said Terdjanian “denies the allegations.
Home » 44 Armenians Charged in Huge Medicare Fraud Scheme
44 Armenians Charged in Huge Medicare Fraud Scheme
Tagged with: american crimearmenian crimecrime syndicateinternational gangsterskazarianthief in lawvor v zakone
By WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM AND MICHAEL WILSON
An Armenian-American crime syndicate stole the identities of doctors and thousands of patients and used them and more than a hundred spurious clinics in 25 states to bill Medicare for more than $100 million for treatments no doctor ever performed and no patient ever received, the federal authorities announced on Wednesday.
Prosecutors said the case represented the largest Medicare fraud operation ever carried out by a single group that resulted in criminal charges. The group succeeded in stealing $35 million in Medicare reimbursements, officials said, before the charges were leveled and arrests were made on Wednesday.
The “highly organized massive scheme” is at the heart of a racketeering indictment and other charges unsealed in federal court against 44 people, including a number of members of the Armenian crime group, according to the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors in New York and Georgia.
“With 118 phantom clinics and over $100 million in bogus billings, this group of international gangsters allegedly ran a veritable fraud franchise,” Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said in a statement announcing the charges. “As charged, they stole taxpayer dollars earmarked for the elderly and infirm and got away with it, until now.”
As of early Wednesday afternoon, 41 of the people accused had been arrested, 21 of them in the New York City area, and a number of others in Los Angeles and elsewhere, the authorities said. They included Armen Kazarian, whom the authorities identified as a “Vor,” a term that means “thief-in-law” and refers to a member of a select group of high-level criminals from Russia and the countries that had been part of the Soviet Union, including Armenia.
Prosecutors said that Mr. Kazarian’s arrest signified the first time a Vor has been charged in the United States with racketeering crime, and the first time since 1996 that a known Vor has been arrested on any federal charge.
The indictments (see also below) were announced at a Wednesday afternoon news conference by Mr. Bharara; Janice K. Fedarcyk, the assistant director in charge of the New York F.B.I. office; James T. Hayes Jr., the special agent in charge of the New York Office of Homeland Security Investigations; Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly; and other officials.
“The diabolical beauty of the Medicare fraud scheme — from the criminals’ standpoint — was that it was completely notional,” Ms. Fedarcyk said in a statement released in the early afternoon. “There were no real medical clinics behind the fraudulent billings, just stolen doctors’ identities. There were no runners or colluding patients showing up at clinics for unneeded or “upcoded” treatments, just stolen patient identities. The whole doctor-patient interaction was a mirage.”
Twenty-eight of 44 defendants were named in a racketeering indictment unsealed in New York. Additional indictments were unsealed on Wednesday in related cases by the United States attorneys in Los Angeles, Cleveland, Albuquerque, and Savannah, Ga.
The group used the stolen identities of the doctors and patients to bill Medicare for more than $100 million in nonexistent treatments over four years, according to a news release announcing the charge. And while the news release said Medicare would identify and shut down the bogus clinics after several months, in many cases “Medicare had already paid millions of dollars to the phony clinics — more than $35 million in total — and that money had already been withdrawn and sometimes transferred overseas.”
The group, official said, was aware that each clinic had a limited shelf life and would simply turn to another fraudulent clinic — they existed only on paper with an address that was usually a mail drop — operating at least 118 in 25 states.
The racketeering indictment charges 28 defendants, including Mr. Kazarian, with crimes tied to the operation of the Armenian-American organized crime group, which it identifies as the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian Organization, a nationwide criminal operation with strong ties to Armenia. The group’s leadership is based in New York and Los Angeles, but its operations extend throughout the United States and overseas.
The indictment maintains that that the scheme operated with the assistance of, and under the protection of, Mr. Kazarian. The group’s members and associates are charged with numerous crimes, including racketeering, health care fraud, identity theft, money laundering and bank fraud. The indictment says members and associates of the organization are alleged to have used violence and threats of violence to ensure respect for and payments to its leadership.
Kazarian, Armen Et Al Indictment
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.. AP Varugan Amroyan is led in handcuffs from FBI headquarters in New York Wednesday, Oct, 13, 2010. Amroyan …
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By TOM HAYS, Associated Press Writer Tom Hays, Associated Press Writer — Wed Oct 13, 9:33 pm ET
NEW YORK — A vast network of Armenian gangsters and their associates used phantom health care clinics and other means to try to cheat Medicare out of $163 million, the largest fraud by one criminal enterprise in the program’s history, U.S. authorities said Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors in New York and elsewhere charged 73 people. Most of the defendants were captured during raids Wednesday morning in New York City and Los Angeles, but there also were arrests in New Mexico, Georgia and Ohio.
The scheme’s scope and sophistication “puts the traditional Mafia to shame,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said at a Manhattan news conference. “They ran a veritable fraud franchise.”
Unlike other cases involving crooked medical clinics bribing people to sign up for unneeded treatments, the operation was “completely notional,” Janice Fedarcyk, head of the FBI’s New York office, said in a statement. “The whole doctor-patient interaction was a mirage.”
The operation was under the protection of an Armenian crime boss, known in the former Soviet Union as a “vor,” prosecutors said. The reputed boss, Armen Kazarian, was in custody in Los Angeles.
Bharara said it was the first time a vor — “the rough equivalent of a traditional godfather” — had been charged in a U.S. racketeering case.
Kazarian, 46, of Glendale, Calif., and two alleged ringleaders — Davit Mirzoyan, 34, also of Glendale, and Robert Terdjanian, 35, of Brooklyn — were named in an indictment charging racketeering conspiracy, bank fraud, money laundering and identity theft.
The indictment accused Terdjanian and others of hatching other schemes involving stolen credit cards, untaxed cigarettes and counterfeit Viagra. It also alleges that during a meeting last year at a Brighton Beach restaurant, Terdjanian pulled a knife on someone who owed him money “and threatened to disembowel the individual if the debt was not paid.”
A judge jailed Terdjanian without bail on Wednesday at a brief hearing. Afterward, his attorney said his client denies the charges.
Kazarian and Mirzoyan were scheduled to appear in court Wednesday in Los Angeles.
Authorities began the New York-based investigation after information on 2,900 Medicare patients in upstate New York — including Social Security numbers and dates of birth — were reported stolen.
The defendants in the New York case also had stolen the identities of doctors and set up 118 phantom clinics in 25 states, authorities said. The names were used to submit fake bills for care that was never given, they said.
Some of the phony paperwork was a giveaway: It showed eye doctors doing bladder tests; ear, nose and throat specialists performing pregnancy ultrasounds; obstetricians testing for skin allergies; and dermatologists billing for heart exams.
In the New York portion of the case, more $100 million in fraudulent bills were submitted and Medicare paid out at least $35 million, sometimes by wiring it to the clinics’ banks accounts, investigators said.
Most of the defendants “were Armenian nationals or immigrants and many maintained substantial ties to Armenia” and criminals there, the indictment said. Couriers would often carry cash proceeds from the fraud back to Armenia, it added.
Prosecutors were seeking forfeiture of real estate in Las Vegas; Palm Springs, Calif.; and elsewhere, and of a 2007 Maserati and a 2006 Jaguar.
The tables are slowly but surely turning and Armenians are in visible panic. All this because of a recent legal defeat. Prof. Guenter Lewy is cleared of all defamations dished out by Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), perhaps a hapless tool in the Armenian propaganda. If this intrigues you, then fasten your seatbelt for what follows.
Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), one of America’s revered civil rights organizations, accused in 2008 Professor Guenter Lewy of being part of a network of academicians financed by the Turkish government, based on input from SPLC, we now understand that an Armenian employee misled SPLC with falsified information (why am I not surprised?)
SPLC even compared Prof. Lewy and Neo-Nazis, even though Prof. Lewy had been harassed by Nazi thugs on Kristallnacht in 1938 and later joined the British Army’s Jewish Brigade in World War II to fight Nazis. Armenian fanaticism, deception, and misrepresentations know no ends, in the true tradition of the master falsifier Aram Andonian of fake Tallat telegrams, and the above article is no exception.
The court battle forced the SPLC to publish an embarrassing apology and retraction, perhaps a first in their history, as a small price for trusting Armenian falsifiers and Turk haters in matters relating to the Turkish Armenian conflict. Reportedly, SPLC will also provide Prof. Lewy a monetary settlement.
Prof. Lewy was still kind when he commented, “The SPLC has made important contributions to the rule of law and the struggle against bigotry. Thus I took no pleasure in commencing legal action against it. But the stakes, both for my reputation as a scholar and for the free and unhindered discussion of controversial topics, were compelling. It must be possible to defend views that contradict conventional wisdom without being called the agent of a foreign government.”
David Saltzman, one of Lewy’s co-counsel from the TALDF was more to the point when he said, “Academic freedom requires that scholars not work under a cloud of suspicion of their motives. Professor Lewy has been transparent and objective in his work.”
Bruce Fein, Lewy’s other co-counsel reinforced this by stating, “SPLC did the right thing by admitting and correcting their errors” whereby they rescued Professor Lewy’s reputation and “… advanced a common goal of free inquiry as the best method of discovering truths.”
Lincoln McCurdy, president of Turkish Coalition of America, perhaps put it best when he observed, “Reconciliation between the Turkish and Armenian peoples will require a full accounting of history. TCA supports an open dialogue and unfettered academic inquiry into this controversial period of Ottoman-Armenian history and tragedy. We are proud of TALDF’s hard work which hopefully will contribute to this open debate and offer our congratulations to Professor Lewy.”
THE FACTS ARE CLEAR FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO KNOW THE TRUTH
Jewish Holocaust is supported by due process and a court verdict by a competent tribunal (Nuremberg, 1945.) What due process and court verdict support Armenian claims of genocide? The answer might surprise you: none!
Armenian claims are based on a racist and dishonest version of history, not law or the truth. They are racist because they ignore the Turkish victims at the hands of Armenian revolutionaries (120,000 in the year 1914 alone, according to the dictionary of World War One, by Stephen Pope and Elizabeth-Anne Wheal, 2003, page 34.) And they are dishonest because they simply dismiss the six T’s of the Turkish-Armenian conflict. The “poor, starving Armenians myth” needs to be reconciled with these photos of the Armenian ultra-nationalists armed to the teeth (www.ethocide.com .)
Whereas the picture is crystal clear: Armenians took up arms against their own government. After a millennium of harmonious cohabitation, Armenians, thus chose to resort to revolts, terrorism, supreme treason, and territorial demands, causing countless Muslim/Turkish casualties, all of which triggered the TERESET (temporary resettlement of 1915). These are the plain facts.
Armenians must face up to their own unspeakable crimes against humanity before any closure can occur. If you are still in doubt, let me refer you to an Armenian source to see photos of Armenian murderers, gun-toting Armenian clergy, their Muslim, mostly Turkish, victims: Houshamatyan of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation, Centennial, Album-Atlas, Volume I, Epic Battles, 1890-1914 (The Next Day Color Printing, Inc., Glendale, CA, U.S.A., 2006)
These facts contradict with the embellished and falsified Armenian narrative, which in turn, creates “cognitive dissonance” in Armenian people. Modern psychology informs us that this trauma can be resolved in two ways:
1) accept the new facts and change your attitude accordingly, or
2) ignore/dismiss the new facts and demonize all dissenters.
Most Armenians, unfortunately, seem to still choose the latter, hence no closure after a century.
Sarafian (L) and Koker during the book event. (Photo by Ayse Gunaysu)
It’s Sept. 17, two days before church services will be held at the Holy Cross (Sourp Khatch) Church on Akhtamar Island. A multi-storey bookstore sits on one of the busiest streets of Van. At the top is a cafe, where mostly young people meet and freely smoke despite the countrywide smoking ban in Turkey—a happy surprise for me!
But this time the cafe is hosting a very different kind of event. Today, Osman Koker, the founder and editor-in-chief of the Birzamanlar Yayincilik (renowned for its book Armenians in Turkey 100 years ago, and exhibitions both in Turkey and abroad), and Ara Sarafian, the director of the Gomidas Institute based in London, are presenting their co-production—“Akhtamar: A Jewel of Medieval Armenian Architecture”—to an audience comprised of journalists from the U.S., Armenia, France, and other countries; representatives of the Turkish mainstream press, as well as the local press; groups of Armenians from Istanbul; and locals.
It was the first time an Armenian publishing house mainly publishing genocide studies and a Turkish publisher had joined forces to release a book about the great Armenian cultural heritage in old Armenia, launching the book where it belongs—in Van, the great Armenian city where that “jewel” had survived despite everything.
The book, with texts offered in both Turkish and English, contains Stepan Mnatsakanian’s survey of the Holy Cross Church from an architectural and artistic perspective, accompanied with architectural drawings by Edizioni Ares from Milan and photographs by Kadir Citak taken specifically for the book.
In his welcoming speech, Sarafian pointed out the various aspects of Sourp Khatch, such as the use of religious and secular carvings on the exterior walls of the church to exalt the rule of the Ardzruni Dynasty, or the presence of Islamic and Seljuk elements on the walls reflecting the integrated and cross-cultural history of the area. After all, the Armenian kingdom of Vasbouragan was very much engaged with its Muslim neighbors. “This eclecticism reflects the history and beauty of the church,” he stated, adding, “I want to hope that what has been done to protect Sourp Khatch will also be done for the few remaining examples of the Armenian cultural heritage that are still left amongst the thousands that have been destroyed in this country.”
Koker told the audience why he founded Birzamanlar Yayincilik, which mainly publishes books about the Armenian history in Turkey. He said he wanted to contribute to the efforts for change in the deeply-rooted mentality in Turkey—fed by the educational system—that disregards everyone except Turks and depicts Turkey as a land that only Turks inhabited in the past.
The questions that followed were mainly about the motives of the Turkish government for opening the church for the first time after 95 years; the boycotts by the Patriarchate at Etchmiadzin and other Armenian circles; the failure of the Turkish government in placing the cross on the dome of the church; and particularly Sarafian’s views on the controversies surrounding the Armenian attendance at the service.
“I think [opening the Holy Cross Church for service] is a positive step and an opportunity for people—Armenians, Turks, Kurds, others—to respond in different ways,” Sarafian said. “In our case, we decided to take the Turkish authorities at face value, and to engage the Turkish audience with a Turkish- and English-language book on Akhtamar. I hope we publish other books, too. Perhaps the next one will be on Ani. In the old days, it was impossible to speak freely on Armenian issues in Turkey. This is not the case any longer. We can now introduce new voices into Turkey. Let Turkish officials use their advantages as in the past, but their powers of thought-control is limited. For example, the word ‘Armenian’ does not appear on the official sign greeting people on the island of Akhtamar. The monastery is described as having been built by the architect Manuel for King Gagik of Vasbouragan. The Museum of Van also does not mention Armenians. However, Turkish audiences know the meaning of these absences and can draw their own conclusions. This is also why they are open to alternative explanations of the history of this land.”
Sarafian concluded by saying, “The Akhtamar issue is part of a process of establishing bridges, ground rules, and trust. Where such developments will ultimately lead depends on many factors and for this reason what we do as groups and individuals matters. Let’s have sensible discussion of such issues, not only across the so-called ‘Turkish-Armenian divide,’ but also within the different sides of this divide.”
Osman Koker, despite his acknowledgment of the church service as a positive step, said the failure in placing the cross on the dome of the church was an indication of the government’s lack of courage and feelings of empathy. “The government wanted to display a gesture of good intentions to the world, but due to such timidity the gesture itself failed to serve its purpose,” he concluded.
It was an interesting, yet at the same time sad, experience to listen to Armenian songs playing from the bookstore’s music system and to see books about the Armenian cultural heritage of Turkey displayed prominently in the entrance of the shop—such as a colossal book about Armenian master silversmiths by the Aras publishing house (Istanbul), the only center in Turkey publishing Armenian literature both in Armenian and Turkish. The display of that book was particularly poignant because it showed the beautiful work of Armenian silversmiths in Van a hundred years ago. That tradition, like Armenians, was lost in 1915.
TF hopes that there more persons like Ayasli Familiy, to support Turkey’s image
Sender’s comment:
Onemli – bahsettigim yazi .. TM
Hittite founder’s money boosts Turkey’s image
Boston Business Journal – by Tim McLaughlin
by Tim McLaughlin on September 17, 2010
Five years after stepping aside as chairman of Chelmsford’s Hittite Microwave Corp., Yalcin Ayasli has pumped tens of million of dollars into Turkish causes, even finding himself in the middle of the debate over whether the killing of 1.5 million Armenians during the Ottoman Empire was genocide.
Ayasli’s spending largely has escaped notice. Even some of the beneficiaries of his money, such as an Ohio congresswoman, say they don’t know who he is.
Ayasli has funded his interest in the culture and heritage of his native Turkey through the steady sale of Hittite stock. Over the past year, Ayasli and members of his family have sold $131 million worth of Hittite shares. And since April 2006, that total is about $438 million, according to data gathered by a unit of Thomson-Reuters.
Ayasli and his family also have become a force to be reckoned with in American politics. During the past three election cycles, the Ayasli family has contributed several hundred thousand dollars to Democratic and Republican campaigns and political action committees, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics in Washington D.C.
Read more: Hittite founder’s money boosts Turkey’s image – Boston Business Journal
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