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The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
November 8, 2012 Thursday
Federal agent impersonator sentenced on money charges
by Nelson Daranciang, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Nov. 08--A Kula man who for years paraded around Maui pretending to be
a U.S. Treasury Department special agent is going to prison for 18
months.
Abraham Kantzabedian told people, including his wife, his job as a
treasury agent was to investigate terrorism.
A federal judge Wednesday sentenced Kantzabedian, 54, to the prison
term for making thousands of dollars in cash deposits into his bank
account in increments of less than $10,000 to evade reporting
requirements.
U.S. District Senior Judge Helen Gillmor also fined Kantzabedian
$10,000 and ordered him to forfeit to the government two sport utility
vehicles he purchased with the money from his bank account. One of the
SUVs, a 2008 Chevrolet Suburban, was accessorized to look like a law
enforcement vehicle. The other SUV is a 2009 Porsche Cayenne
Kantzabedian bought for his wife.
In exchange for Kantzabedian's guilty pleas to the illegal financial
transaction charges, the federal prosecutor dropped two charges of
impersonating a federal employee, including one for financial gain to
get a discount on the purchase of a $20,000 law enforcement dog.
Gillmor gave Kantzabedian until Dec. 27 to turn himself in to begin
serving his prison term.
She said she didn't know if she had ever had a case even remotely
similar to Kantzabedian's. She said his presentence report doesn't
explain where Kantzabedian got the money to deposit into his account
nor does it explain why he impersonated a treasury agent.
His lawyer Philip Lowenthal told Gillmor that Kantzabedian got the
money from different sources and because of past experiences, doesn't
trust banks and may have a proclivity for James Bond-type excitement.
Kantzabedian told Gillmor he grew up in Soviet-controlled Armenia
before his father moved the family to the United States.
He told authorities when they arrested him in February that he had not
had a job in the past four years and that he gets money through
gambling in Las Vegas. His wife, a director at Maui Memorial Medical
Center, told them her husband did not pay housing or utility bills but
occasionally bought groceries and paid for their motor vehicle
insurance.
Federal Prosecutor Michael Song told Gillmor that Kantzabedian is a
con man who has been able to smooth-talk people into giving him money.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News
November 8, 2012 Thursday
Federal agent impersonator sentenced on money charges
by Nelson Daranciang, The Honolulu Star-Advertiser
Nov. 08--A Kula man who for years paraded around Maui pretending to be
a U.S. Treasury Department special agent is going to prison for 18
months.
Abraham Kantzabedian told people, including his wife, his job as a
treasury agent was to investigate terrorism.
A federal judge Wednesday sentenced Kantzabedian, 54, to the prison
term for making thousands of dollars in cash deposits into his bank
account in increments of less than $10,000 to evade reporting
requirements.
U.S. District Senior Judge Helen Gillmor also fined Kantzabedian
$10,000 and ordered him to forfeit to the government two sport utility
vehicles he purchased with the money from his bank account. One of the
SUVs, a 2008 Chevrolet Suburban, was accessorized to look like a law
enforcement vehicle. The other SUV is a 2009 Porsche Cayenne
Kantzabedian bought for his wife.
In exchange for Kantzabedian's guilty pleas to the illegal financial
transaction charges, the federal prosecutor dropped two charges of
impersonating a federal employee, including one for financial gain to
get a discount on the purchase of a $20,000 law enforcement dog.
Gillmor gave Kantzabedian until Dec. 27 to turn himself in to begin
serving his prison term.
She said she didn't know if she had ever had a case even remotely
similar to Kantzabedian's. She said his presentence report doesn't
explain where Kantzabedian got the money to deposit into his account
nor does it explain why he impersonated a treasury agent.
His lawyer Philip Lowenthal told Gillmor that Kantzabedian got the
money from different sources and because of past experiences, doesn't
trust banks and may have a proclivity for James Bond-type excitement.
Kantzabedian told Gillmor he grew up in Soviet-controlled Armenia
before his father moved the family to the United States.
He told authorities when they arrested him in February that he had not
had a job in the past four years and that he gets money through
gambling in Las Vegas. His wife, a director at Maui Memorial Medical
Center, told them her husband did not pay housing or utility bills but
occasionally bought groceries and paid for their motor vehicle
insurance.
Federal Prosecutor Michael Song told Gillmor that Kantzabedian is a
con man who has been able to smooth-talk people into giving him money.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress