ATM Theft Ring Suspect Was a Star in High School

Raffie Eskandarian was recognized as a leader years before the FBI named him the alleged mastermind of the most sophisticated ATM theft ring in U.S. banking history.

In 1989, he was voted team captain and named most valuable player of his Crescenta Valley High School basketball team. The 26-year-old still holds the team record for the most three-point shots scored in a game.

“I’d love to know what happened to him after he left,” said John Goffredo, Eskandarian’s former basketball coach.

So would many who know Eskandarian and the eight other men arrested with him this month for allegedly stealing $2 million from banks and ATM users. An additional suspect is still at large. All have been charged with access device fraud and face a maximum of 10 years in federal prison if convicted.

Between 1995 and 1998, federal authorities say, the group installed hidden video cameras at two gas stations and a carwash to record customers tapping in their personal identification numbers, and used laptop computers to capture account numbers during ATM transactions.

Attorneys for the men deny wrongdoing.

The men, mostly Armenian, shared middle-class backgrounds and a love of sports. “They came from good families,” said one acquaintance. They were star athletes from the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys. They liked expensive clothes and cars.

And, say authorities, they liked paying with other people’s money.

Their lives were full of opportunity.

Patrick Khalafian, 28, had worked for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Gilbert Petrosian, 24, studied political science at Cal State Northridge and wanted to be a lawyer. Philip Hacopians, 26, sold used cars at his father’s lot and coached soccer for Crescenta Valley High and Mayfield Senior High School in Pasadena.

Authorities say at least three bank employees--Roni Der Sarkissian, 22; Alec Eskandarian (Raffie’s brother), 19; and Roland Sahakians, 30--also belonged to the alleged ring. While working as bank tellers, federal investigators allege, the men stole bank account numbers and were responsible for bank losses of $100,000 involving 119 bank customers between September 1996 and June 1997.

After working 10 months as a JPL technician, Khalafian--the alleged computer expert of the group--was fired for failing to disclose a previous criminal conviction on his job application, authorities said.

Petrosian, a college dropout, also had a previous conviction for embezzlement and forgery.

Federal investigators allege that Petrosian, who was refused a soccer coaching job at Crescenta Valley High because of his criminal record, recruited youths to withdraw hundreds of dollars from convenience store ATMs using counterfeit and stolen bank cards.

Police are still seeking Petrosian of La Crescenta, who is considered a fugitive.

Hacopians of La Crescenta and Sahakians of Glendale were arraigned last week and released on bond. They have pleaded not guilty and face trial May 12.

Khalafian of Montrose, who has not been indicted, is cooperating with federal prosecutors.

The alleged ringleaders, Eskandarian of Tujunga and Rene Simonian, 26, of Glendale are scheduled for their post-indictment arraignment this morning. Der Sarkissian of Glendale will also be arraigned today.

Simonian remains in custody in lieu of $300,000 bail. A U.S. magistrate ordered Der Sarkissian and Raffie Eskandarian held without bail at the Metropolitan Detention Center.

“Raffie was the kind of kid you could trust,” said Jim Smiley, another of Eskandarian’s former basketball coaches.

But he and coach Goffredo agreed that Eskandarian and his younger brother, Alec, seemed to flounder after their mother’s death from cancer in 1988.

Eskandarian was arrested in 1990 for attacking a female motorist, whom he believed had treated him rudely in a store, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. As the woman sat in her car at a La Crescenta stoplight, Eskandarian crept up alongside her, punched her in the face through the open window and ran away. The blow broke the woman’s glasses and left a bloody gash.

A witness led deputies to Eskandarian, who confessed.

“Yeah, I hit her,” Eskandarian said in the sheriff’s report. “She made me mad.”

Investigators say they do not know how long the alleged ring operated. The first hint came in 1995, say authorities, after Simonian was pulled over during a traffic stop. Simonian was arrested after officers found eight different ATM cards from three banks that had been turned into counterfeit cards.

A year later, Los Angeles police officers, acting on a tip, searched Eskandarian’s home and found a credit card encoder and lists of bank account numbers. They also found a First Nationwide Bank card that was encoded with a Great Western Bank account number.

Last April, Covina police received reports of unauthorized ATM withdrawals totaling $66,000. All of the bank customers who lost money, police learned, had used their ATM cards at the Covina Auto Spa. A clerk at the carwash was among those arrested earlier this month.

During a search of the carwash, investigators found a videotape and a half-inch hole in the ceiling, which they suspect was used for a surveillance camera. The videotape showed customers typing their PIN numbers onto the ATM keypad on the counter.

In June 1997, sheriff’s deputies were called to a disturbance at a Lost Hills apartment and found Eskandarian and Simonian. While questioning the men, deputies saw several blank plastic cards and equipment that could be used to make counterfeit ATM cards.

After a search, they reportedly found 54 white plastic cards, computer printouts with ATM card information and computer diskettes containing programs designed to assist in the production of counterfeit ATM and credit cards.

A month later, Glendale police stopped Petrosian’s purple BMW and found several credit cards wrapped in a rubber band, according to a police report. Police also found a California driver’s license with his picture and the alias Peter Bagdassarian. Petrosian was arrested on suspicion of possessing fraudulent or stolen cards.

Four days later, he told federal investigators the group had recruited gas station owners and workers to defraud ATM card customers.

By the end of last year, investigators had traced unauthorized ATM transactions to two ARCO gas stations--one in Long Beach and the other in Woodland Hills. Authorities say at least $160,000 was stolen from those sites. A laptop computer connected to the ATM pad at the Woodland Hills ARCO station had collected 600 account numbers, federal authorities said.

On March 5, FBI agents arrested 19-year-old Vigen Koshkaryan of Covina, the clerk from the Covina Auto Spa; and Zabiullah Najib, 29, of Canoga Park, an employee at the Long Beach ARCO station. They were arraigned last week and remain free on bond.

Federal investigators suspect the ring was developing an online casino and an age verification program for adults-only Web sites, both designed to steal credit card numbers.

“This case was a classic case of greed,” said Lonny Chavez, supervisor of the FBI’s white collar crime squad in Los Angeles. “It was an insatiable greed.”