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Village medic suspected in embezzling ambulance fuel

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embezzling ambulance fuel

Anti-corruption agents of Armenian law enforcement agencies have revealed that a director of a medical facility of the Verin Getashen village in Gegharkunik Province has been embezzling fuel which has designated for the local ambulance from 2015 to 2018. Police say the suspect, Arsen Ghukasyan, has embezzled more than 1 million drams worth of petrol in the period.

Authorities also said that other the medical facility has been engaged in other types of fraud too – it had employed drivers who never showed up for work but received remuneration. Nearly 3,000,000 drams in damages have been inflicted.

 

Glendale lawyers are accused of embezzling Armenian genocide survivor benefits

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Armenian Americans and supporters hold a 2013 candlelight vigil at the Glendale Civic Auditorium in memory of those who died in the Armenian genocide. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

By Andy Nguyen,

(latimes.com) Report Two Glendale attorneys could face disciplinary action after the State Bar of California alleged they embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from a multimillion-dollar settlement relating to the Armenian genocide.

The state bar filed several disciplinary charges last year against Vartkes Yeghiayan and Rita Mahdessian, including misappropriation of funds and moral turpitude. They claimed the couple, who are married, had siphoned more than $300,000 of settlement money stemming from a class-action lawsuit over survivor benefits from the Armenian genocide.

The two have denied the charges.

According to bar documents, the couple misrepresented two nonprofit groups they created to appropriate the funds.

In 2005, a class-action lawsuit was brought against French insurance company AXA S.A. over survivor benefits from descendants of Armenian genocide victims. Yeghiayan and Mahdessian were co-counsels on the case.

The resulting settlement was $20 million, with the insurance company being required to pay $17.5 million. From that settlement, a $3 million Unclaimed Benefits Fund was set up, naming nine specific beneficiaries, according to documents from the state bar.

As part of the fund, any money left after paying the main settlement and administrative costs could be distributed to charitable organizations recommended by the suit’s lawyers — namely Yeghiayan and Mahdessian.

The state bar said one of the nonprofits, the Center for Armenian Remembrance, was created three months after the settlement was approved and based out of the couple’s Brand Boulevard law firm.

The second nonprofit, the Conservatoire de la Memoire Armenienne, also was said to be based out of the attorneys’ office.

According to the state bar, the two then requested more than $300,000 be given to the organizations because they qualified as charitable. However, Yeghiayan and Mahdessian failed to produce any record of charitable activity or disclose their ties to the nonprofits, according to court documents.

The two are accused of using some of the funds on their own law firm and to pay college tuition for their two children.

Iranian businessman hanged over $2.6bn bank fraud

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May 24, 2014 – 16:22 AMT

179230A businessman involved in embezzling billions of dollars in Iran’s biggest bank fraud case has been executed, state media said, according to BBC News.

Mahafarid Amir-Khosravi was executed at Tehran’s Evin prison on Saturday, May 24.

Amir-Khosravi was convicted over a scam which came to light in 2011 and involved using fake documents to obtain credit, leading to the embezzlement of around $2.6bn.

The case forced the then government to deny its members had been involved.

The case broke in September 2011 when an investment firm was accused of forging documents to obtain credit from at least seven Iranian banks over a four-year period.

The money was reportedly used to buy state-owned companies under the government’s privatization scheme.

The affair fuelled weeks of political infighting between then President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran’s ruling hierarchy of clerics, with conservative hardliners accusing Ahmadinejad’s economy minister of failing to take action over the fraud.

Rights groups have criticized Iran’s use of the death penalty, saying that it is one of the world’s heaviest users of the punishment.