On August 27, 2008, the RoA National Security Service (NSS) arrested 3 Rumanians and one Latvian. According to the NSS statement at the time: During the month of August the criminal band used fake bank cards to gain access to automated teller machines in Yerevan and other regional centers belonging to VTB Bank, Anelik Bank, UniBank and Converse Bank. As a result they withdrew more than 80 million drams in cash.

A search of their hotel rooms uncovered 160 fake bank cards and a large sum of cash. It turns out that the group used customer account numbers belonging to the world famous Barclays Bank of England.

“There is ample evidence to suggest that the group engaged in the same racket overseas,” read the NSS statement and described those arrested as members of an international crime syndicate.

The four arrested were – Marian Oliver Raduca, Daniel Fereru and Constantin Haji, from Rumania, and Margarita Sprudzane, from Latvia. All have since been sentenced. However, documentation sent to the court doesn’t bear out the suspicions of the NSS that they plied their trade overseas as well. It appears that they only withdrew cash from Armenian banks.

Constantin Haji lived in London and worked as a driver for DHL, a freight and shipping company. In London he met up with Marius Loupo and was told about the group engaged in the bank card scam. Constantin agreed to be paid 1,000 Euros to check out the targeted bank accounts and to transfer the duplicate bank cards across the border to the waiting swindlers.

In August, 2008, he received orders from Marius to transport the fake cards to Armenia where group members Katalin Ionout Apetri Fourduy and Dragosh Botezatou had already hit a number of automated teller machines and had withdrawn 25.8 million drams.

Constantin Haji told his girlfriend Margarita Sprudzane about the set-up. The two arrived in Yerevan on August 27, 2008, aboard the Riga-Yerevan flight. They registered in the same room at the Marriott-Armenia Hotel.

“At the time, Margarita noticed the 146 fake bank cards that Constantin had transferred to Armenia. But she didn’t go to the police to tip them off. On the contrary, she accompanied Constantin who went to a VTB Bank cash machine and proceeded to withdraw 160,000 drams in the course of eight minutes, even though he tried to withdraw 551,000,” reads the statement of the NSS Investigations Division.

Margarita Sprudzane was charged with “withholding information of an impending crime”, punishable by a maximum two year sentence. Constantin Haji was charged with “large-scale organized theft”, punishable by 4-8 years imprisonment, with or without a seizure of personal property.

The other arrested foreigners Oliver Mariani and Daniel Fereru had arrived in Armenia a week earlier.

Oliver worked as a manager in Rameks Import-Export Ltd., registered in Great Britain. When he learned that his countryman Kornel Constantin Stengachu, who had set up residence in London, was planning to fraud banks in Armenia he agreed to assist and booked hotel rooms, car rentals and offered other services. He personally transported the booty out of Armenia and back to England.

Arriving in Armenia, Oliver fell in with the working group led by Kornel based on country affiliation that included Daniel Fereru and Adi Blaga. He shared a room with Daniel at the Europa Hotel in Yerevan.

Oliver Mariani  set out with the task he was given. He personally participated in defrauding several cash machines in Yerevan and Sevan and actively assisted the group which was able to withdraw more than 34 million drams from cash machines in Armenia from August 18-27.

Daniel Fereru also resided in London and worked as a laborer at McGee Construction.
Following the example of his friend Oliver, he also participated in the group’s activities. For a 5% share of the take he agreed to exchange the ill-gotten Armenian currency for foreign notes.

Oliver’s mother paid for Daniel’s flight from London to Yerevan. For several days straight, he and his cohorts defrauded several cash machines in the town of Etchmiadzin and in Yerevan belonging to several banks, including HSBC. While one of the group was entering numbers at the cash machines the others were posted as lookouts. The fraudsters took turns as to who did what.

In addition, Daniel set out to facilitate the exchange of the Armenian drams by opening various bank accounts. Thus, he was able to “launder” the booty by exchanging it for Euros.

For his actions, the NSS Investigations Division proposed that Oliver Mariani be charged with “large-scale organized theft”. Daniel Fereru, in addition to the same charge, was also accused with the crime of “pre-consenting to launder large amounts of cash obtained by a criminal group”.

The pre-investigation unit sent the paired cases of Constantin-Margarita and Oliver-Daniel to court separately. They admitted to their crimes and requested that the court rush through their trials.

In all four cases the court found no grounds to exact harsher than normal sentences/ On the contrary, the court found that there were grounds for leniency given that none had prior convictions; they expressed remorse for what they did and assisted in exposing the scope of the crime.

On February 18, 2009, at the Kentron and Nork-Marash Court of First Instance, Judge K. Ghazaryan presiding, Margarita Sprudzane was found guilty and fined 300,000 drams. She was set free that same day.

Judge Ghazaryan found that there were no grounds to mete out additional punishment in the case of Constantin Haji, namely seizure of personal property, and sentenced him only to four years imprisonment.

On April 10, 2009, Judge Gagik Avetisyan issued an interesting verdict. He sentenced Oliver Mariani to only two years for the same crime that Constantin was charged with and for which he got a four year sentence. This sentence was extremely lenient since the minimum sentence for such a charge is four years.

Judge Gagik Avetisyan sentence Daniel Fereru to six years imprisonment and property seizure not to exceed the amount of losses incurred and the ill-gotten gains Daniel received.

The two judges didn’t review the civil claims presented by the aggrieved parties involved and instructed them to register such claims with the civil court system. It is interesting to note that back in September, 2008, Shahen Hovhannisyan, Director of “Armenian Card Ltd., stated in an interview with the newspaper “Aravot” that, as a result of the group’s theft, “The banks we service haven’t experienced any losses. On the contrary, they have received an intermediary fee for all services.”

To be continued