Source: Office of United States Attorneys

LOS ANGELES – Fourteen defendants – including San Fernando Valley and Glendale residents – were arrested on two federal criminal complaints alleging they fraudulently obtained more than $25 million in taxpayer-funded COVID-19 relief funds and federally-guaranteed small business loans.

The 18 total defendants named in the complaints – four defendants are believed to be in Armenia – are charged with conspiracy to defraud the government with respect to claims; false, fictitious, or fraudulent claims; wire fraud and attempted wire fraud; bank fraud and attempted bank fraud; money laundering conspiracy; laundering of monetary instruments; engaging in monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity; and/or structuring financial transactions to evade reporting requirements.

The defendants arrested today include:

• Vahe Margaryan, a.k.a. “William McGrayan,” 42, of Tujunga, who allegedly orchestrated a scheme to defraud numerous banks and the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Preferred Lender Program, a program designed to help small businesses that otherwise might not obtain financing. McGrayan allegedly directed owners of sham corporations to open bank accounts, make false statements, and concoct documents, including phony resumes and financial statements, to support loan applications to buy other sham corporations. McGrayan allegedly paid for phony tax returns that falsely reported millions in revenue and tens of thousands in tax due and owing. McGrayan, whose alleged criminal activity lasted from 2018 until January 2025, then directed the laundering of millions in fraud proceeds through various bank accounts.
• Sarkis Gareginovich Sarkisyan, 37, a.k.a. “Samuel Shaw,” of Glendale, who allegedly, among other offenses, submitted a false application and bogus documents to obtain a loan under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which provided low-interest, forgivable loans to help small businesses retain their workforce and cover expenses. Sarkisyan allegedly applied in April 2021 on behalf of a fake business that received more than $700,000 in PPP funds.
• Mery Babayan, 32, a.k.a. “Mery Diamondz,” of Van Nuys, together with co-defendants Margaryan and Hovannes Hovannisyan, 48, a.k.a. “John Harvard,” of Panorama City, in May 2021 allegedly defrauded a bank by representing the nonexistent sale of a sham business to another sham company to obtain an approximately $3 million federally guaranteed loan through the SBA’s Preferred Lending Program.
• Felix Parker, 77, of North Hollywood, who in January 2023 allegedly made false statements and submitted fraudulent documents, including fake tax returns that falsely reported that his shell company, Canmar Promo, earned millions of dollars annually and owed tens of thousands in federal income taxes. Parker allegedly obtained more than $2 million in government-guaranteed funds earmarked to help small businesses.
• Axsel Markaryan, 47, a.k.a. “Axel Mark,” of Pacoima, who in June 2023 allegedly fraudulently obtained more than $5 million in SBA loans via the submission of false statements and the submission of fake documents, including bogus tax returns. After the loans were obtained, Markaryan and his co-schemers in November 2023 laundered the money, including sending at least $100,000 to a co-schemer in Armenia.

As a result of today’s takedown, law enforcement seized approximately $20,000 in cash, two money-counting machines, paper cash bands or currency straps in denominations of $2,000 and $10,000, multiple cell phones, multiple laptops, two loaded semi-automatic 9mm handguns, and boxes of 9mm ammunition.

“Today’s enforcement action is intended to send a message to all criminals who take advantage of government programs designed to help those who need them most,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “If you took COVID-19 or SBA money you weren’t entitled to, your door could be the next one we visit. Together with our law enforcement partners, my office will aggressively prosecute individuals who cheat the system meant to protect and support law-abiding citizens.”

“Scheming to fraudulently obtain federal funds that were meant to provide assistance to the nation’s small businesses is unacceptable,” said the U.S. Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General (SBA-OIG) Western Region Acting Special Agent in Charge Jonathan Huang. “OIG will continue to ardently investigate fraudulently obtained SBA program funds, including COVID-19 pandemic-related loans, to protect taxpayers from fraud, waste, and abuse. I want to thank the U.S. Attorney’s Office and our law enforcement partners for their dedication and pursuit of justice.”

“This transnational criminal network sought to defraud the government of millions of dollars and almost succeeded,” said Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles Acting Special Agent in Charge John Pasciucco. “Through the diligent work of the El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force and our federal partners, HSI is continuing to identify these criminal groups looking to profit from the pandemic and will use all available resources to criminally prosecute or remove them from the country.”

“Today, 14 individuals were arrested in connection with a fraudulent loan scheme in which they allegedly obtained in excess of $25 million through the SBA Paycheck Protection Program, Economic Injury Disaster Loan programs, and other federal funding programs,” said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher, Los Angeles Field Office. “These programs were established to assist individuals and businesses in need of financial assistance and instead were pilfered by the named defendants. IRS-CI is dedicated to identifying and dismantling criminal organizations that prey on assistance programs set up for the benefit of our law-abiding citizens.”

A criminal complaint contains allegations. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

If convicted, each defendant would face a statutory maximum sentence of decades in federal prison.

On May 17, 2021, the Attorney General established the COVID-19 Fraud Enforcement Task Force to marshal the resources of the Department of Justice in partnership with agencies across government to enhance efforts to combat and prevent pandemic-related fraud. The Task Force bolster efforts to investigate and prosecute the most culpable domestic and international criminal actors and assists agencies tasked with administering relief programs to prevent fraud by, among other methods, augmenting and incorporating existing coordination mechanisms, identifying resources and techniques to uncover fraudulent actors and their schemes, and sharing and harnessing information and insights gained from prior enforcement efforts. For more information on the department’s response to the pandemic, please visit https://www.justice.gov/coronavirus. 

On September 15, 2022, the Attorney General selected the U.S. Attorney’s Offices for the Central and Eastern Districts of California to jointly head one of the three national COVID-19 Fraud Strike Force Teams. The Department of Justice established the Strike Force to enhance existing efforts to combat and prevent COVID-19 related financial fraud. The Strike Force combines law enforcement and prosecutorial resources and focuses on large-scale, multistate pandemic relief fraud perpetrated by criminal organizations and transnational actors, as well as those who committed instances of pandemic relief fraud. The Strike Force uses prosecutor-led and data analyst-driven teams to identify and bring to justice those who stole pandemic relief funds. Additional information regarding the Strike Force may be found at https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-covid-19-fraud-strike-force-teams. 

Anyone with information about allegations of attempted fraud involving COVID-19 can report it by calling the Department of Justice’s National Center for Disaster Fraud (NCDF) Hotline at (866) 720-5721 or via the NCDF Web Complaint Form at https://www.justice.gov/disaster-fraud/ncdf-disaster-complaint-form. 

SBA-OIG, IRS Criminal Investigation, and HSI are investigating these matters.

The cases announced today were investigated by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General and Homeland Security Investigations’ (HSI) El Camino Real Financial Crimes Task Force, a multi-agency task force that includes federal and state investigators who are focused on financial crimes in Southern California. 

Assistant United States Attorneys Mark Aveis and Gregg Marmaro of the Major Frauds Section and Maxwell Coll of the Cyber and Intellectual Property Crimes Section are prosecuting these cases.

MIL Security OSI –