Los Angeles, California – LAWFUEL – Los Angeles– A federal jury has convicted a Glendale man of conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and making false statements to an IRS – Criminal Investigation Special Agent.
Andranik Petrosian, 41, of Glendale, was convicted yesterday afternoon of conspiring with medical business clients to defraud the IRS by providing the clients a means of obtaining cash from their business operations. Petrosian’s medical business co-conspirators used the cash they received from Petrosian for paying unlawful kickbacks for patient referrals and to divert cash from their businesses to avoid paying income taxes.
As detailed in the indictment, beginning in 2003 and continuing through 2007, as a part of the scheme to defraud the IRS, Petrosian would instruct his co-conspirators to make checks payable from their medical businesses to any of several businesses that Petrosian operated. Petrosian would deposit the checks made payable to his businesses and, subsequently, would give cash back, less a fee of up to 10%, to his co-conspirators. In an effort to conceal the arrangement, Petrosian would periodically provide invoices to his co-conspirators falsely indicating that the medical businesses’ checks were for some form of advertising or graphic design services. The co-conspirators would use the false invoices to fraudulently substantiate expenses used in the preparation of their tax returns which were subsequently filed with the IRS.
In an effort to further conceal the scheme from investigators, Petrosian would arrange for advertisements for the medical businesses operated by his co-conspirators to appear in publications produced by businesses he operated. These publishing businesses included Tet-A-Tet Magazine and Kakadu Magazine. Both Tet-A-Tet Magazine and Kakadu Magazine, along with other businesses, operated under the corporate name A & K Trading, Inc. The businesses operated by Petrosian were run out of an office located in Burbank.
When sentenced, Petrosian faces a statutory maximum of 10 years in federal prison and fines totaling $500,000. United States District Judge Stephen V. Wilson ordered Petrosian to appear for sentencing on July 21, 2008.
The investigation and prosecution of Petrosian was conducted by IRS – Criminal Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General, and the United States Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles.
