OKLAHOMA CITY – The leader of an alleged criminal ring comprised of five Canadians, an Angeleno and another individual, pleaded guilty in federal court here to a felony charge arising from an illicit scheme to acquire personal protective equipment and Oklahoma State University event tickets. Steven Mesrop, 29, of Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada, pleaded guilty August 3 to participating in a conspiracy to commit wire fraud.
At sentencing, Mesrop faces a federal prison term of up to 20 years and a potential fine of $250,000. Others indicted in the case were Carolina Mesrop, 24, Robert Vinnik, 26, Katayun Oskoi, 24, and Mirna Mahrous Habib, 24, all of Ontario, Canada; Dijon Cornelius Shepard, 27, of Los Angeles, CA; and Karin Treister, 24, hometown unknown.
All of the defendants were charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Vinnikalsois charged with wire fraud and aggravated identity theft, and Habib is also charged with possession of 15 or more “unauthorized access devices.”
The indictment alleges that Mesrop and his associates operated a scheme to use stolen credit card and identity information to induce businesses to provide goods and services, such as tickets to professional and collegiate sporting events and personal protective equipment, to resell for a profit.
It is alleged that at the onset of the COVID-19 health crisis the conspirators began targeting U.S.- based businesses selling goods that were scarce due to the pandemic. The conspirators allegedly used stolen credit card information to purchase items such as nitrile gloves, masks, and gowns and to resell them to third parties.
FRAUD RING OPERATED INTERNATIONALLY
The indictment alleges the conspirators operated the scheme from Canada, the Dominican Republic, Spain, Greece, and Dubai. The conspirators are accused of targeting sports teams and event venues throughout the United States and Canada, including Madison Square Garden in New York City. Mesrop stole credit card information from 32 individuals by using the WhatsApp messaging platform, prosecutors said.
Mesrop and his associates allegedly used 21 different alias email accounts and information from 52 stolen credit cards to purchase more than 1,800 tickets to OSU athletic events between November 2019 and January 2020. In an affidavit, an FBI special agent reports that 1,086 of those were tickets to the 2019 “Bedlam” football game between the Oklahoma State Cowboys and the University of Oklahoma Sooners.
OSU “suffered a financial loss totaling $679,330,” investigators reported.
In March 2020 the conspirators allegedly used stolen credit card information to purchase $18,094 worth of toilet paper from a paper supply company in Oklahoma City. Unknowingly, the OKC company shipped the toilet paper to the co-conspirator in Los Angeles, the FBI agent said.
Prosecutors said the ring also tried to buy 10 tickets to an Eagles concert.
Habib, identified by investigators as Steven Mesrop’s girlfriend, helped the Canada-based ring to “commit fraud through the use of stolen credit cards at the direction of Mesrop” since at least October 2018, the affidavit claims. She “established email accounts, trafficked in stolen credit cards, recruited friends to work for the fraud ring, used stolen credit cards to make purchases on behalf of herself, Mesrop, and the fraud ring.”
In return for her work, Habib “was rewarded with a lavish lifestyle including international travel, luxury gifts, money, and a breast augmentation,” the FBI agent wrote.
Habib received a series of text messages from the Royal Bank of Canada confirming a transfer of money to her bank account, the agent reported. From Sept. 20 through Dec. 28, 2020, she received nine transfers totaling more than $64,000, the investigator said.
As of July 10, 2020, the New York Police Department knew that Mesrop and Habib were living in Spain, where they had traveled early last year to set up a base of operations to conduct their scams targeting European soccer clubs, the FBI agent wrote in his affidavit. However, due to the shutdown of sporting events as a result of the global coronavirus pandemic, Mesrop and his associates “failed to see their plans through.”
Treister was described by investigators as “a close friend” of Habib and was identified during a search of Habib’s cellphone.
3 ARRESTED, 4 MORE AT-LARGE
Steven Mesrop has been in custody ever since his arrest in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 18. Shepard was arrested in Los Angeles, California, on April 16. Treister was arrested in Florida on May 24; she was released from custody after surrendering her passport and her travel is restricted to the Western District of Oklahoma. Habib, Vinnik, Oskoi, and Carolina Mesrop remained at-large as of August 6, records indicate.
Treister’s court-appointed attorney asked that her trial be continued to the October 12 docket. He was appointed “relatively recently,” and his client is accused of participating in “a complex wire fraud scheme occurring in multiple international locales,” he told the court. In addition, prosecutors presented him with a two-terabyte hard disk that contains 1.4 million documents, including “voluminous investigative reports” plus “emails and chats” among the defendants.
An Italian man has been cited as a material witness in the case. He told investigators from the DHS and the NYPD that he met Steven Mesrop in Spain and served as his chef and personal trainer; he said he traveled with Mesrop and his associates to Greece, Dubai, Mexico and The Bahamas.
If convicted of conspiracy or any wire fraud count, a defendant faces a federal prison term of up to 20 years. If convicted of aggravated identity theft, an offender faces an additional two years in prison per count, to be served consecutively to a sentence on any other count of conviction. Each count of conviction also includes a fine up to $250,000.
The case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations New York’s El Dorado Task Force, the New York City Police Department, and the Irvine, California, Police Department, with assistance from Customs and Border Protection.