A state jury found two California men accused of installing credit card "skimming" devices in gasoline pumps on Oahu to steal more than $150,000 from the cardholders’ accounts guilty Friday of identity theft and being accomplices to identity theft.
The jurors deliberated a little more than a day before finding Akop Tadevosovich Changryan, 29, and Vardan Kagramany, 38, both from Glendale, Calif., guilty as charged.
The two men face mandatory 20-year prison terms for each of the two charges at sentencing in June.
Prosecutor Chris Van Marter said Changryan and Kagramany are professional criminals.
"These individuals are part of a known criminal organization in Los Angeles referred to as Armenia Power. And they have a history of doing this all across the country, in particular in the Southern California area," Van Marter said.
He said Changryan was on probation in California for the same kind of crime when he committed his crimes in Hawaii in September 2011, and is awaiting another trial in California for doing the same thing in Laguna Beach just before traveling to Hawaii.
Van Marter said the U.S. Secret Service helped identify Changryan and Kagramany in security video recorded at the five Aloha Island Mini Mart gas stations where customers had their credit and debit card account information stolen.
The skimming devices can recordcredit and debit card information, but Van Marter said only customers who used debit cards had money stolen from their accounts because the devices also recorded their personal identification numbers. People who use credit cards at the pumps do not have to enter their PINs to buy gasoline.
The defense lawyers said none of the videos shows either defendant installing any device in any gasoline pump.
In one video, however, Van Marter told the jurors, Changryan can be seen on the other side of the van away from the camera opening the front of a gasoline pump and sticking his hand inside.
Changryan’s lawyer, William Harrison, disagreed.
"I looked at the video 50 times. I couldn’t see what they’re claiming they saw," Harrison said.
