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Glendale Publisher Gets Prison For $3M Tax Fraud Scheme

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The Glendale-based owner of several Armenian-language magazines was sentenced Monday to 30 months in federal prison for using his companies as a front for a $3 million tax fraud scheme.

Navasard Petrosyan, 61, was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Feess to serve three years of supervised release after he gets out of prison, according to the Internal Revenue Service.

Petrosyan pleaded guilty last August in Los Angeles federal court to a two-count information charging him with conspiring to defraud the IRS and making a false statement to the government.

According to court papers, Petrosyan negotiated checks from various medical provider clients, disguised the checks as advertising expenditures, and gave back to the clients in cash the face value of the checks minus a fee.

By facilitating more than $3 million in cash-back transactions concealed as "advertising" expenditures, the untaxed income resulted in a tax loss of almost $1 million, according to the IRS.

Petrosyan owned such publications as Avangard Weekly, Health and Beauty Magazine, Kroonk Magazine, Muse Magazine, Rainbow Magazine and Time TV Program, officials said.

(©2010 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)

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