Housing fraud suspect who allegedly conned city out of more than $18K pleads no contest

Officials have charged the Glendale man with defrauding the city to get subsidized housing.

August 31, 2011|By Veronica Rocha, veronica.rocha@latimes.com

GLENDALE — A 69-year-old Glendale man pleaded no contest to charges that he conned the city out of $18,492 when he lied about his finances to get federal subsidized housing, officials said this week.

Norayr Aklyan entered an open plea Friday to one felony count of defrauding the Glendale Housing Authority and four felony counts for perjury and obtaining money, labor or property by false pretenses, said Jane Robison, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.

Aklyan is expected to appear Nov. 2 in the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Burbank for sentencing, she added.

City officials confirmed that Aklyan has reimbursed the Housing Authority for the loss, which was the federal assistance he received from Aug. 1, 2008, to Aug. 1, 2010.

“It appears that Mr. Aklyan acted without conscience,” Glendale Police Det. Robert Zaun said.

Zaun added that Aklyan defrauded the city of funds that could have been given to residents who actually needed Section 8 rental assistance.

Aklyan was accepted into the city low-income housing assistance program after he declared having only one bank account and his Social Security benefits — $870 per month — as his sole income, according to police reports.

But he allegedly never notified housing advisors that he established a bank account and deposited about $12,150. He later went on to deposit tens of thousands of dollars into the bank account, according to city officials.

Meanwhile, Aklyan continued to live on the 1100 block of East California Avenue and met with housing advisors several times to review documents for the rental assistance program, according to police.

Even then police alleged he didn’t report all of his income and falsified housing documents.

Housing investigators eventually discovered he had opened a second bank account at Citibank in 2009, officials said.

He later admitted failing to disclose the account and incorrectly filling out the housing documents, according to police reports.

Aklyan, who no longer lives in Glendale, began reimbursing the city in July, city officials said.

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