An Armenian man who previously lived in Glendale was sentenced Monday to 10 years in federal prison for scheming to defraud private lenders of more than $5 million, officials said.
Glendale News Press reports that U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips also ordered the man, 44-year-old Henrik Sardariani, to pay $5.4 million to the victims of his scheme and also to pay a $100,000 fine, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Henrik Sardariani pleaded guilty in January to five felony counts of wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering for organizing the loan-fraud scheme. His plea implicated his 42-year-old brother, Hamlet Sardariani. His brother, a Sylmar resident, pleaded guilty to similar charges.The scheme was “sophisticated and complex,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Ranee Katzenstein.
Henrik Sardariani allegedly admitted that he borrowed money from lenders and didn’t plan to pay them back, even though he promised them the loans were safe.He told investigators that he used the loans to gamble on horse races, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
One of Henrik Sardariani’s victims spoke during the sentencing and explained that he worked for the money that was defrauded from him and his family, and “in a day it was gone,” he said.
He lent $2.5 million in May 2007 to Henrik Sardariani, who used his home on Paseo Redondo in Burbank as collateral, as well as a house on Maginn Drive in Glendale.
Hamlet Sardariani is expected to be sentenced Sept. 10. Tenney, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to launder money, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 15.
