WASHINGTON – A Glendale, Calif. lawyer has pleaded guilty in connection with a conspiracy to defraud a bank into processing more than $5 million in credit and debit card payments for a student loan debt relief merchant, the Department of Justice reported.
Rudy Dekermenjian, 42, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss of the District of Columbia to information filed in the District of Massachusetts charging one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting a financial institution and bank fraud and one count of alteration and falsification of records, the Department of Justice reported.
“Dekermenjian admitted at the plea hearing that, from 2017 to 2018, while working as the General Counsel at a payment processing company based in Los Angeles, (Company A), he conspired to fraudulently obtain payment processing services on behalf of a merchant providing student loan debt relief services. As alleged in the information, Company A had obtained payment card processing for the merchant from Fifth Third Bank beginning in 2016, but the bank’s risk department terminated the merchant in May 2017. Following the termination, executives at Company A counseled the merchant to re-apply for processing in the names of ‘sham merchants,’” the DoJ explained.
Fake Websites
The sham merchants’ applications, backstopped by fake websites that purported to sell housewares, jewelry, leather goods and other retail items made it appear to Fifth Third Bank that there was significantly less risk associated with the business, according to the allegations. In fact, the “sham merchants” were fronts for transactions that involved student-loan debt-relief and not retail goods, the DoJ said. Dekermenjian learned of the scheme shortly after it commenced, joined the conspiracy, and subsequently earned commission payments of approximately $20,292 on the fraudulently obtained processing, the DOJ said.
According to the DoJ, the scheme was the subject of two separate federal investigations. As described in the information, in approximately November 2018, a federal grand jury sitting in the District of Massachusetts issued a subpoena to Company A for records relating to processing for merchants involved in loans and debt collection and records relating to the creation of merchant websites. In approximately May 2019, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau separately issued a civil investigative demand to Company A seeking documents relating to the “sham merchants” that Company A used to obtain payment processing for the student loan debt relief merchant, the DoJ said.
Dekermenjian admitted in the plea hearing to falsifying and altering the sham merchant applications in June 2019 with the intent to obstruct these investigations. Company A subsequently produced Dekermenjian’s altered and falsified documents to the CFPB.