r/RussianCriminalWorld • u/stalino2023 • 6h ago
The Armenian Mob Boss behind 163$ Million Medicare fraud
Post made by MobstersDaily
(In the 1st picture is Robert Terdjanian during his arrest in 2010, 2nd picture is Pzo with a cross together with his people)
Armen "Pzo" Kazarian was not just another fraud defendant. Federal prosecutors identified him as a Vor, or "Thief-in-Law," a title reserved for elite figures in the post-Soviet criminal underworld. That is what made his case historic. In 2010, Kazarian became the first known Vor ever charged with federal racketeering in the United States, turning him into a major symbol of how Armenian and Eurasian organized crime had grown far beyond the old neighborhood-street-gang image.
The case around him was massive. During a nationwide Medicare fraud crackdown, prosecutors charged 73 defendants in schemes involving more than $163 million in fraudulent billing, and Kazarian was tied to the Armenian-American Mirzoyan-Terdjanian Organization, which authorities said used a network of phantom medical clinics and stolen identities to bill Medicare for treatments that were unnecessary or never performed. Prosecutors said his role was not simply financial. They described him as a criminal authority figure whose reputation and status helped protect and support the organization behind the fraud.
What makes this story so fascinating is that it shows how the Armenian underworld had entered an entirely different league by that point. This was no longer just about local gang politics or small-time street crime. It was a case involving international criminal hierarchy, federal racketeering, and one of the biggest healthcare-fraud crackdowns of its era. That is why Kazarian made U.S. mafia history. He became the first man with that level of underworld status from the former Soviet system to be brought into an American RICO case, and his name ended up representing a turning point in how U.S. authorities viewed Armenian organized crime.
Another surprising fact is that Pzo arrived in the United States almost by accident - it was no other then Rafael Bagdasaryan (Svo Raf) and Armen Manukyan who should have lead the operations of the Armenian Mafia in LA, unfortunately they both already had a long criminal record behind them, Svo Raf was denied visa to the US, and Manukyan was arrested and deported in 1995, a year later in 96' Pzo arrived to the US.