Granada Hills man sentenced for COVID jobless scam

A San Fernando Valley man was sentenced to 210 months in federal prison for using stolen identities to fraudulently obtain more than $1,568,000 in COVID-19 pandemic-related unemployment benefits and for stealing the title to dozens of cars by presenting forged documents to the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

Eduard Gasparyan, 38, also known as “Rudy Pineda” and “Papin Galstyan,” of Granada Hills, received his sentence from United States District Judge Josephine L. Staton. The judge also ordered him to pay $2,232,767 in restitution.

Gasparyan pleaded guilty in February 2023 to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud.

From at least 2020 to September 2022, Gasparyan and his then-fiancée Angela Karchyan, 39, of Granada Hills, stole the identities of victims and used them to apply for unemployment insurance benefits from the California Employment Development Department (EDD), which administers the state’s unemployment insurance program.

As the COVID-19 pandemic worsened in 2020, Congress implemented Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) provisions to expand access to unemployment benefits to self-employed workers, independent contractors, and others who would not otherwise be eligible for them.

After the bogus unemployment insurance benefits applications were approved, Gasparyan and Karchyan used debit cards containing the fraudulently obtained benefits to withdraw cash at ATMs.

For example, on August 23, 2021, Gasparyan was filmed via surveillance camera at a bank ATM withdrawing $4,500 from nine debit cards within a seven-minute span. Three of the debit cards were issued in Gasparyan’s name while the other six debit cards were in the names of other individuals.

From February 2020 to August 2022, EDD paid out approximately $544,089 in fraudulently obtained jobless benefits on at least 32 claims using an address in Van Nuys that Gasparyan used as a mailing address. During that same time frame EDD paid out approximately $307,012 in jobless benefits on at least sixteen claims linked to a Granada Hills address associated with Gasparyan.

Gasparyan and Karchyan purchased vehicles using their own names as well as those of identity theft victims but provided sellers with worthless checks or bank account numbers purportedly for payment.

Gasparyan and his co-conspirators also used stolen identities to rent vehicles and then caused the DMV to remove rental car companies – true owners – from vehicle registrations by using forged documents.

“The primary victims of [Gasparyan’s] conspiracy are taxpayers whose efforts to ameliorate the suffering of those who lost their jobs during the COVID pandemic [Gasparyan] took for himself,” prosecutors argued. “Of course many individual victims suffered anxiety over destroyed credit ratings and tremendous effort necessary proving they are not deadbeats but rather victims.”

Karchyan pleaded guilty in February 2023 also facing one count conspiracy committing wire fraud serving a forty-one-month prison sentence ordered paying $2 million restitution too.

The United States Department Labor Inspector General California Employment Development Department Criminal Investigations Orange County Auto Theft Task Force investigated this matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Andrew Brown Major Frauds Section prosecuted case further anyone having information allegations attempted fraud involving COVID can report calling Department Justice National Center Disaster Fraud Hotline or via NCDF Web Complaint Form online.