An attorney with law offices in Beverly Hills and ties to Armenian organized crime was sentenced Monday to six months behind bars followed by six months of home detention for bribing two federal agents for assistance in obtaining sensitive law enforcement information and other charges.
Edgar Sargsyan, 42, pleaded guilty in July 2020 to two counts of bribing a public official, two counts of making false statements to federal investigators, and conspiracy to commit bank fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Sargsyan’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment.
Sargsyan, of Calabasas, admitted paying tens of thousands of dollars from the beginning of 2015 through early 2017 to a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations and a special agent with the FBI. The then-FBI agent, Babak Broumand, was sentenced in February to six years in prison after a jury convicted him of multiple charges.
Sargsyan paid the Homeland Security agent — whose name and legal status was not immediately available — at least $32,000 in checks and at least $45,000 to $50,000 in cash in return for assistance that included searching law enforcement databases to obtain classified information.
The agent also altered a Homeland Security database to make it “more likely” that a foreign national who was a client of Sargsyan’s law firm would be allowed to enter the United States, according to papers filed in Los Angeles federal court.
In another corrupt act detailed in Sargsyan’s plea agreement, the Homeland Security agent prepared a document on the agency’s letterhead in an unsuccessful attempt to have one of Sargsyan’s relatives from Armenia admitted into the United States.
Sargsyan also admitted paying Broumand monthly cash bribes of up to $10,000 beginning in 2015 in exchange for the agent providing “protection,” which included running queries on law enforcement databases and warning Sargsyan to “stay away” from certain people who were the targets of criminal investigations, according to the plea agreement.
Broumand, who worked at the agency’s San Francisco field office, accepted the cash payments on trips to Southern California, where he stayed at luxury hotels that were paid for by Sargsyan, evidence at his trial showed.
The then-FBI agent also accepted from Sargsyan a $36,000 racing motorcycle as a “bonus” for running database checks on a particular person. Sargsyan additionally gave him a $30,000 cashier’s check that was made to appear to be a payment to the agent’s business, according to court documents.
The false statements charges arise from interviews with law enforcement in September 2017 when Sargsyan falsely stated that the $30,000 check to Broumand was a loan, and in December 2018, when he falsely told special agents with the FBI and Homeland Security that he did not pay bribes to the FBI agent.
Sargsyan also admitted participating in a conspiracy that defrauded financial institutions by fraudulently obtaining credit cards in the names of foreign nationals who had previously been in the United States on visitor visas.
Once the credit cards were issued by the financial institutions, Sargsyan and his co-conspirator charged “purchases,” including more than $941,000 that Sargsyan personally charged at two businesses he controlled.
Broumand was found guilty in October 2022 in downtown Los Angeles of conspiracy, bribery of a public official, and monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.