A Granada Hills man was sentenced to more than 17 years in federal prison for his role in a COVID-19 aid fraud scheme and stealing dozens of cars using fake documents.
Eduard Gasparyan, 38, was sentenced to 210 months in prison and will have to pay more than $2.2 million in restitution, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a news release.
Gasparyan, who also used the names “Rudy Pineda” and “Papin Galstyan,” pleaded guilty in February 2023 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
From 2020 to September 2022, Gasparyan and his then-fiancée, 39-year-old Angela Karchyan, also of Granada Hills, “stole the identities of victims and used them to apply for unemployment insurance benefits from the California Employment Development Department (EDD), which administers the state’s unemployment insurance program,” the release said.
Gasparyan and Karchyan then used the debit cards containing the unemployment benefits to withdraw cash at ATMs.
“For example, on August 23, 2021, Gasparyan was filmed via surveillance camera at a bank ATM withdrawing $4,500 from nine debit cards within a 7-minute span,” the release said. “Three of the debit cards were issued in Gasparyan’s name while the other six debit cards were in the names of other individuals, court documents state.”