A Southern California man was sentenced to federal prison Monday for bilking banks out of nearly $5 million by racking up expenses on illegally obtained credit cards, including cemetery plots, liquor and Rolex watches, prosecutors said.
Mikayel Hmayakyan, 43, of Glendale, was sentenced to seven years in prison. He pleaded guilty in June to bank fraud and aggravated identity theft. He also was ordered to pay nearly $5 million in restitution.
Hmayakyan and others swindled more than 20 banks by obtaining credit cards using their own or phony identities. After running up the cards to their credit limits, the schemers restored the credit lines by submitting payments from accounts with insufficient funds or through other fake accounts, according to a statement from the U.S. attorney’s office.
The charges included dozens of watches and other jewelry items, nearly 40,000 liquor bottles and plots at Forest Lawn cemetery, prosecutors said. The liquor was bought for a now-closed Glendale liquor store, while the cemetery plots were resold at a profit, authorities said.
Prosecutors say Hmayakyan also bilked banks by applying for loans in the names of real and fictitious people that he used to buy cars without making the loan payments.
The schemes took place from 2010 through 2017, authorities said.
Two other people pleaded guilty in connection with the schemes earlier and a third awaits trial.