L.A. Federal Court Employees Charged in Fraud Scheme

 A Los Angeles federal court employee and her husband face charges stemming from an alleged scheme to peddle confidential information from sealed court records to defendants prior to being charged, officials announced Wednesday.

Nune Gevorkyan, 35, and Oganes Koshkaryan, 40, both of Hollywood, were arrested Tuesday.  Gevorkyan was arrested at her desk in the criminal intake clerk's office of the downtown courthouse, and Koshkaryan at their home, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said.

The couple are charged in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles with conspiring to obstruct justice, which carries a possible sentence of up to 20 years in prison.

According to the complaint, Koshkaryan first provided someone who turned out to be an undercover operative with Medicare beneficiary information in order to conduct Medicare fraud.

The operative then told Koshkaryan that a third person was willing to pay cash to get confidential information from the federal court system, according to the complaint.

Koshkaryan responded that he could get secret information from the court system in exchange for cash as long as he had a first and last name, prosecutors allege.

Following the conversation, the undercover gave Koshkaryan names of defendants in a criminal case filed under seal in federal court. Koshkaryan subsequently delivered confidential information, including the fact that the defendants were about to be arrested, in exchange for money, according to federal prosecutors.

Checks of electronic court records confirmed that that Gevorkyan had accessed the sealed court records pertaining to the named defendants shortly after the person working with authorities had delivered the names to Koshkaryan, officials said.

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