A California woman who fled to Montenegro to avoid serving a lengthy prison sentence has been returned to the United States after spending approximately one year as a fugitive.
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Tamara Dadyan, 43, of Encino, was extradited by Montenegro and arrived in Los Angeles Monday evening to appear this afternoon in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
According to court documents, Dadyan was a member of a Los Angeles-based fraud ring who engaged in a scheme to fraudulently obtain more than $20 million in Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) COVID-19 relief funds.
Dadyan and her co-conspirators used dozens of fake, stolen, or synthetic identities – including names belonging to elderly or deceased people and foreign exchange students who briefly visited the United States years ago and never returned – to submit fraudulent applications for approximately 150 PPP and EIDL loans.
In support of the fraudulent loan applications, Dadyan and her co-conspirators also submitted false and fictitious documents to lenders and the Small Business Administration (SBA), including fake identity documents, tax documents, and payroll records.
Dadyan and her co-conspirators then used the fraudulently obtained funds as down payments on three luxury homes in California. They also used the funds to buy gold coins, diamonds, jewelry, luxury watches, designer handbags, cryptocurrency, securities, and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
In June 2021, Dadyan pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and bank fraud, one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering, and one count of aggravated identity theft. She was sentenced in December 2021 to 10 years and 10 months in prison.
In January 2022, Dadyan fled the United States. U.S. authorities determined Dadyan had fled to Montenegro where she joined Richard Ayvazyan and Marietta Terabelian, two other participants in the scheme and conspiracy who also fled after their convictions.
Ayvazyan and Terabelian, who were respectively sentenced to 17 years and six years in prison, were extradited to the United States from Montenegro in November 2022. ■