Twelve individuals were taken into custody on August 3, 2017 on charges that they diverted at least 2 million prescription pills – including oxycodone and other addictive and dangerous narcotics – to the black market.

Some of those taken into custody operated sham medical clinics that wrote prescriptions for the drugs.

According to the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Central District of California: “ Those arrested this morning include Minas Matosyan, an Encino man also known as “Maserati Mike,” who is charged with leading the scheme and controlling six of the sham clinics. Matosyan allegedly hired corrupt doctors who allowed the conspirators to issue fraudulent prescriptions under their names in exchange for kickbacks.”

Other Armenians arrested were Armen Simonyan (52 of Burbank), Grisha Sayadyan (66 of Burbank), Fred Minassian (50 of Glendale), Hayk Matosyan (30 of Granada Hills), Elizabeth Gurumdzhyan (25 of Hollywood) and Anait Guyumzhyan (27 of Hollywood).

The defendants face long terms in federal prison if convicted. For example, if convicted of the nine counts in which he is charged, Matosyan would face a statutory maximum sentence of 165 years in prison.