LOS ANGELES (Washington Insider Magazine)– According to the prosecution, a former FBI agent in Northern California who dealt with national security matters was found guilty on Tuesday of taking at least $150,000 in gifts and cash bribes in exchange for divulging private information to a man with links to organized crime.
According to a release from the US Justice Department Babak Broumand, 56, of Lafayette, was convicted in Los Angeles of bribery of a public official, conspiracy, and engaging in monetary transactions using property derived from unlawful activities.
When he is sentenced in January, he may spend 15 to 45 years in federal prison, according to ABC NEWS.
In charge of conducting national security investigations, Broumand, who joined the FBI in 1999, served there until 2018, according to the prosecution.
According to the prosecution, Broumand took payment from 2015 to 2018 in the form of checks, cash, a Ducati motorcycle, private jet flights, hotel stays, meals, escorts, and other valuables in exchange for searching law enforcement databases to assist a self-proclaimed lawyer and his criminal accomplices determine whether they were under investigation and avoid prosecution.
The attorney, who is solely referred to as “E.S.” in court records, was really Edgar Sargsyan, who had previously admitted to paying Broumand and another federal agent and had testified at the attorney’s trial.
At a Beverly Hills cigar club, the two guys were introduced.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Sargsyan admitted to earning a fortune by stealing people’s identities and using them to open bank accounts and make credit card purchases. He also stated that, although posing as an attorney, he really paid a friend to take the bar test in his place.
The Justice Department claims that Broumand fraudulently claimed that E.S. was an FBI source and that he was doing legal database searches in order to hide the true nature of their corrupt connection.
One included Levon Termendzhyan, a member of the Armenian organized crime scene who Sargsyan had previously worked for, according to the prosecution.
According to the prosecution, Termendzhyan was found guilty in 2020 in a federal court in Utah of taking part in a $1 billion fraud conspiracy involving renewable fuel tax credits. He is awaiting sentencing.
