The former manager of a Wells Fargo branch in Glendale accused of unfreezing suspicious accounts tied to a $14 million scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service pleaded guilty on Monday, August 5.
Hakop Zakaryan, 34, of Glendale, admitted to one count of felony bank fraud as part of a plea agreement with prosecutors, officials from the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a statement. He was accused of lying to his company’s loss prevention department in order to give clients suspected of fraud access to their accounts, which had been flagged for suspicious activity.
The defendant allegedly knew that those bank customers were using phony identities, and was paid thousands of dollars in cash to lift restrictions on their accounts, officials said. In one instance, fraudsters managed to withdraw $29,453 from a suspicious account after Zakaryan was paid $3,000 to help unfreeze it.