Armenian jailed in CA over participation in identity theft ring

PanARMENIAN.Net - A 26-year-old Armenian man living in Southern California and deemed an "illegal alien" by federal officials participated in a massive, Burbank-based, $7 million identity theft ring operating for six years in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, according to ocweekly.com.

But Hovhannes Dilboyan hoped that his role as a relatively low level "runner" in the crime spree that used bank insiders to access confidential customer account information would earn him in a break.

When he was arrested in 2009, Dilboyan carried a computer thumb drive containing 1,132 access devices, including debit card numbers, bank account numbers and credit card numbers that belonged to unwitting victims who used U.S. Bank, Wells Fargo, Nevada Federal Credit Union, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and American Express.

Inside Orange County's Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse late last year, Assistant United States Attorney Joseph McNally sought a 192-month prison term for Dilboyan.

This week, U.S. District Court Judge David O. Carter sentenced Dilboyan to a term of 111 months in prison and ordered nearly $3.1 million in restitution plus supervised probation of five years upon his release from custody.

Federal immigration officials have launched an effort to deport Dilboyan back to Armenia.