A Kula man charged with impersonating a special agent of the U.S. Treasury Department, who got an $11,500 discount on the purchase of a law enforcement dog, is an unemployed former Maui Police Department recruit who has been lying to his wife about his employment for the five years they have been married, the U.S. Secret Service said in federal court documents.
Federal agents arrested and charged Abraham Kantzabedian on Thursday. They also searched his residence on Calasa Road and his 2008 Chevrolet sport utility vehicle, which, they said, was outfitted to look like a law enforcement vehicle.
They said in court documents that Kantzabedian purchased a dog Dec. 14 for $8,500 from a certified trainer who has worked with and trained dogs for law enforcement. The trainer told the Secret Service the dog is worth $20,000 but that he sold the animal to Kantzabedian with the normal discount he gives law enforcement agencies because he said Kantzabedian told him the animal was going to be used as a government dog.
The Secret Service said it began investigating Kantzabedian last month, after a Maui police detective called the agency to verify Kantzabedian’s claim of being a Treasury special agent. The detective said Kantzabedian had been driving around Maui in a vehicle resembling a police vehicle, with white LED flasher lights in the grille, a police-style two-way radio, a computer on a swivel stand in the front console, a dashboard camera and a sticker on the front windshield resembling a law enforcement crest.
Kantzabedian said he investigates international money terrorism, the detective said, and that his work is so secret and sensitive that he would be alerted if anyone tried to do a background check on him on the Internet. However, the detective said that whenever he saw Kantzabedian, he was wearing assault-style clothing with a law enforcement-style crest on his shirt.
When a Secret Service special agent met Kantzabedian at a Starbucks Coffee in Kahului earlier this month, the agent said Kantzabedian initially tried to maintain his charade but eventually came clean and admitted that he wasn’t a Treasury special agent. The agent said Kantzabedian told him he is unemployed and occasionally wins large sums of money in Las Vegas to pay for his expenses.
The Secret Service said Kantzabedian’s wife reported knowing her husband for about six years and has been married to him for the past five years. She said she believed her husband worked for the Treasury Department the whole time she has known him.
