Former FBI agent found guilty of conspiracy with reps of Armenian organized crime

Former FBI special agent Babak Broumand has been found guilty of taking a bribe from a lawyer linked to an Armenian organized crime figure, Report informs referring to the US Department of Justice.

Babak Broumand, 56, of Lafayette, California, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, two counts of bribery of a public official, and one count of monetary transactions in property derived from specified unlawful activity.

United States District Judge R. Gary Klausner scheduled a January 30, 2023 sentencing hearing, at which time Broumand will face statutory maximum sentences of 15 years in federal prison for each bribery count, 10 years in federal prison for each unlawful monetary transactions count, and five years in federal prison for the conspiracy count.

Judge Klausner ordered Broumand remanded into federal custody.

According to evidence presented at his 11-day trial, from January 2015 to December 2018, Broumand accepted cash, checks, private jet flights, a Ducati motorcycle, hotel stays, escorts, meals, and other items of value from an organized crime-linked lawyer – identified in court papers as “E.S” and each man acted to conceal the true nature of their corrupt relationship.

Soon after the bribery scheme began, E.S. asked Broumand to query the FBI database for Levon Termendzhyan, an Armenian organized crime figure for whom E.S. had worked. The database search “rang all the bells” and revealed an FBI investigation in Los Angeles, according to court documents, which note that Broumand accessed the FBI case file on Termendzhyan repeatedly in January 2015. Broumand also allegedly accessed the Termendzhyan FBI case file in May 2016.

Termendzhyan, a.k.a. “Lev Aslan Dermen,” was found guilty in March 2020 in federal court in Utah on criminal charges related to a $1 billion renewable fuel tax credit fraud scheme. He awaits sentencing.