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BUSINESS / LEGAL



6-12 Shevat, 5772                                                   Jan. 30-Feb. 5, 2012 -- THE JEWISH OBSERVER, LOS ANGELES -- 457th Web Ed.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         
LEGAL
ENCINO CONSPIRATORS PLEAD GUILTY TO CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT BANK FRAUD

On last week in federal court in the Central District of California, Encino residents Richard Ayvazyan, 33, and Marietta Ter-Abelian, 27, entered guilty pleas to conspiracy to commit bank fraud before United States District Judge Cormac J. Carney.  

Richard Ayvazyan and Marietta Ter-Abelian admitted that they participated in a scheme to fraudulently obtain mortgage loans and lines of credit.  

According to the plea agreements, Ayvazyan and Ter-Abelian inflated income loan applications, submitted false forms W-2 and tax returns to federally insured banks in order to obtain residential mortgages and lines of credit.  Ayvazyan received a $500,000 line of credit for which he otherwise would not have qualified.   

In furtherance of the conspiracy, around July 28, 2010 Ayvazan fraudulently sold his residence in Encino to his mother in a short sale by causing his mother to submit a letter to the financial institution stating that they were not related. The total loss caused by Ayvazyan is estimated to be over $1million.

At sentencing, Ayvazyan and Ter-Abelian each face a maximum sentence of five years of imprisonment; a three year term of supervised release; a fine of $250,000 plus twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greatest, and a mandatory special assessment of $100, as well as the cost of prosecution.

The investigation was conducted by the Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation and U.S. Immigration and Custom’s Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).



LEGAL
 FORMER BEVERLY HILLS SUPERINTENDENT CONVICTED OF MISAPPROPRIATION

LOS ANGELES -- The former superintendent of the Beverly Hills Unified School District was found guilty today of giving a female former facilities director more than $20,000 in unauthorized gifts and increasing her car allowance without board approval, the District Attorney’s office announced.

The seven-man, five-woman jury found Jeffrey Hubbard, who is now the superintendent of the Newport Mesa Unified School District, guilty of two counts of misappropriation of public funds. He was found not guilty of a third count.

Judge Stephen Marcus allowed Hubbard, who turns 55 on Thursday, to remain free on his own recognizance and ordered him to return to court Feb. 23 for sentencing. He faces up to five years in state prison.

Deputy District Attorney Max Huntsman with the Public Integrity Division prosecuted the case. Hubbard was convicted of ordering former facilities director Karen Anne Christiansen to be paid $20,000 in two payments, a stipend that was never authorized by the board.

Hubbard also was found guilty of having her $150-a-month car allowance increased to $500 a month without board approval. Huntsman argued that email exchanges between Hubbard and Christiansen suggested a “special relationship existed between the two.

Christiansen, 53, was sentenced on Jan. 5 to four years, four months in state prison and tentatively ordered to pay the district just over $2 million after being convicted of negotiating contracts between the school district and a firm with which her company had a consulting agreement, and for backing a school bond measure that benefited her firm.