The Central Bank of Armenia (CBA) has refuted rumors spread in the Armenian press about inspections made by FBI officers in local banks, NEWS.am reports.
As the same source reported earlier, Armenia's Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper wrote that CBA informed all the banks of forthcoming inspections. According to the paper, FBI officers arrived in Armenia to investigate links of a criminal group arrested in the US.
Armenian white collar criminals and their associates are alleged to have used phantom health care clinics and other means to try to cheat the US Medicare program out of $160 million, the largest fraud by one single criminal enterprise in the program’s history. The operation was carried out under the protection of an Armenian crime boss, Armen Kazarian, nicknamed Pzo. He was also among the first of the gang to be arrested in Los Angeles.
