Epress.am News from Armenia
An Armenian mobster is facing the music — more than 10 years in the slammer — after pleading guilty in Manhattan yesterday to racketeering schemes that included helping a group of musicians from his home country of Armenia get bogus travel visas to visit the United States, the New York Post reports.
Robert Terdjanian, 37, admitted running a gang of crooks — known as the Mirzoyan-Terdjanian Organization — that also stole upward of $35 million through a massive Medicare-fraud scheme.
Manhattan federal prosecutors say the operation stole the identities of doctors and patients to set up 118 “phantom” medical clinics that submitted more than $100 million in phony claims.
Terdjanian, a former drug addict whose rap sheet includes burglary, shoplifting and weapons convictions, also admitted that he “implicitly threatened the use of violence and other criminal means” to collect money owed to him.
According to his indictment, he threatened to disembowel a fellow gangster during a May 2009 “sit-down” at a Brighton Beach restaurant.
“I apologize to this court and to the United States government for my actions,” said Terdjanian, who likely faces deportation once he finishes his prison sentence.