According to a Feb. 10 article that appeared in the Los Angeles Times, an Armenian owned payroll firm operating in southern California has swindled small business owners out of an estimated $4 million USD.

Tovmas Grigoryan, the owner of LA Payroll, has also gone missing with the cash.

The business owners had entrusted LA Payroll to issue employee paychecks and to handle their tax payments.

When the IRS and state tax authorities sent out late tax payment notices the businesses in question realized something was amiss.

Tovmas’ brother Ruben Grigoryan has told the Los Angeles Times that he doesn’t know where his brother is, speculating that he might be in Russia.

"He left about a month ago. We had a merry Christmas together, and he left. He said he had some business in Russia."

Another family member said Grigoryan, who could not be reached for comment, was in Armenia.

"It is a very awful situation, to say the least. A lot of people got hurt," said Babak Dardashti, a Los Angeles dentist. "I lost $20,000 myself. For a small business, a chunk like that all at once is not easy to swallow."

LA Payroll has since closed its office on Wiltshire Boulevard.

Dardashti and others said they have filed complaints with police departments and state and federal agencies, including the LAPD, the FBI and the IRS. But clients said they were given little encouragement by various police officials and federal agents.