FBI agents swarmed the North Hollywood mansion of an alleged fraudster accused of working with a syndicate of scammers to steal up to $15 million from elderly Los Angeles homeowners by stealing their identities.
The Post had a front-row seat to the action early Thursday morning, as agents moved in to arrest accused fraudster Amen Vardevaryan by blasting his stately white home with blinding spotlights.
“You are under arrest,” an officer called out with a bullhorn. “Come out with your hands up!”
Investigators say Vardevaryan and a dozen other alleged scammers stole up to $15 million from elderly LA property owners by stealing their identities and applying for loans and using the properties as collateral.
Federal agents on Thursday morning collared nine members of the crime ring in a series of eight raids across LA County.
Vardevaryan came out barefoot in his pajamas and surrendered himself to FBI agents wearing flack vests and clutching AR-15s rifles. Other suspects were arrested in eight other raids without incident.
Twelve people were charged in a federal indictment unsealed on Thursday morning.
The accused scammers face federal charges for fraud, money laundering and identity theft. They were being processed by officers Thursday morning at the LAPD Station Glendale.
FBI Assistant Director Akil Davis said federal agents had been investigating the organized crime ring for months.
“It’s a complex fraud scheme in which people are using private citizen’s homes to steal money, “ he said.
“It usually starts with stealing the identity of the homeowner, and then they work through various schemes to leverage loans against the house.”
In this way, the alleged fraudsters were able to steal millions through bogus loans against the homes.
“They live a very elaborate lifestyle based on the ill-gotten gains form this type of fraud,” Davis said.
He explained such homeowner identity thefts are on the rise, and that federal law enforcement continued to investigate the ring taken down Thursday along with other organized crime groups committing similar
scams.
“It’s a priority for us,” Davis said. “We’re trying to recover those funds and get them back to taxpayers.”
