Father And Son Arrested At LAX On Fraud Charges
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities say they have arrested a father and son on fraud charges as they were allegedly about to board a plane from Los Angeles to Moscow.
U.S. attorney spokesman Thom Mrozek says Friday that 45-year-old Viktor Ryzhkin and 22-year-old Evgenii Ryzhkin were arrested Thursday. Both are Russians nationals.
Prosecutors allege that the father sent bogus invoices to California small businesses in a mail fraud scheme that caused at least 5,000 victims to send money to a fake company that pretended to be a state agency.
The son is accused of participating in a conspiracy to take over home equity lines of credit that caused at least $1.2 million in losses.
Investigators believe they became aware of a federal probe late last month.
Both allegedly had one-way tickets to Moscow.
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