Glendale man guilty of $1.9 million COVID relief loan fraud scheme

Date: Nov. 25, 2025

Contact: [email protected]

LOS ANGELES - A Glendale, California man pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy to commit bank fraud in connection with a scheme that submitted more than $1.9 million in falsified claims for COVID-19 pandemic relief funds.

According to the plea agreement, beginning in 2020 and continuing through April 2021, Sarkis Garadzhyan and co-conspirators created and operated multiple fake businesses, including one called Arizona Hospice Inc., to fraudulently apply for federal pandemic relief program funds. The defendant falsely claimed to have large payrolls at several shell companies and submitted forged tax documents to support the applications.

"Mr. Garadzhyan deliberately stole from programs designed to keep American businesses afloat during a national emergency," said IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent in Charge Tyler Hatcher, Los Angeles Field Office. "Such blatant abuse of taxpayer-funded relief will not be tolerated. The men and women of IRS-CI will continue to pursue criminals who exploit pandemic relief funds."

Using stolen identities, Garadzhyan and his co-conspirators secured a $150,000 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and a $929,433 Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan. They also obtained an additional $842,666 PPP loan in the name of Arizona Hospice, which was later frozen by Bank of America due to suspected fraud.

Despite knowing the funds were obtained fraudulently, the defendant attempted to persuade the bank to release the money by falsely claiming it was needed to meet payroll obligations-when, in fact, the company had no employees.

U.S. District Judge Michael W. Fitzgerald scheduled a sentencing hearing for March 2, 2026, at which time Garadzhyan could face a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in prison.

The case is being investigated by IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Los Angeles Field Office, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Small Business Administration Office of Inspector General.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.