 Glendale man charged with lying about horse racing bets
Glendale man charged with lying about horse racing bets
Daily News
Article Launched: 09/04/2008 10:29:15 AM PDT
GLENDALE - A Glendale man has been arrested on charges he lied about horse racing winnings and losses to get tax breaks, and stole from bank customers' accounts, authorities said today.
In 2004, Antoine David Haroutunian, 46, claimed a tax refund of $183,345 for 2003 that he knew he was not entitled to, according to a federal indictment.
He claimed that he had over $707,000 in gambling winnings from Santa Anita and Hollywood Park race tracks on his 2003 tax return, from which over $185,000 was supposedly withheld to pay the taxes owed on the winnings.
Further, prosecutors allege Haroutunian claimed over $705,000 in gambling losses, resulting in his false claim that he was entitled to an income tax refund of $183,345.
The indictment alleges Haroutunian attached to his 2003 tax return five separate tax forms used to report gambling winnings and tax withheld, that he knew were false and fictitious, to support his claim.
He's also charged with multiple counts of bank fraud, making a false statement to a financial institution, aggravated identity theft relating to the bank fraud counts and the false statement charge.
While employed by Bank of America as a customer service representative from the end of 2001 through late 2003, he used his account access privileges to obtain information from victim accounts, including the names of the account holders and authorized signers, account numbers and taxpayer identification numbers, according to the indictment.
After Haroutunian's employment with the bank was terminated, he and others impersonated the account holders and withdrew a total of $400,000.
He faces more than 30 years in prison and fines of up to $1 million.  | 
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09-04-2008, 03:09 PM
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