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An alleged con man from Los Angeles is in Honolulu to face charges of running an ATM skimming operation in Waikiki last summer.
An Oahu grand jury indicted Armen Apoyan, 33, and co-defendant Argishti Khachaturyan in August on charges of conspiracy and identity theft.
Apoyan was arrested in Seattle on March 11. He was extradited to Honolulu Friday. His bail is set at $250,000.
Khachaturyan, 33, is scheduled for a Circuit Court jury trial beginning June 16. He was arrested in September and extradited to Honolulu.
He is being held in Oahu Community Correctional Center, unable to post $250,000 bail.
The indictment said the pair arrived here from Los Angeles on Feb. 21, 2013, and installed an "overlay skimming device" over the card-reader slot of a Central Pacific Bank ATM at 2250 Kalakaua Ave. The device was left on the ATM for three days and captured the account information of people using the machine.
The men allegedly removed the device and then made counterfeit ATM cards, which they used to withdraw money from the victims’ accounts from an ATM at The Modern Hotel, 1775 Ala Moana Blvd., and at several other ATMs in Honolulu and California.
If convicted, Apoyan and Khachaturyan each face prison terms of up to 20 years.
Last year, two other men from Los Angeles, Akop Changryan and Vardan Kagramanyan, were each sentenced to 20 years in prison for installing skimming devices on gas pumps.
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COURTESY HONOLULU POLICE DEPARTMENT