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Dear Friend –
When fraud runs in a family, should your tax dollars keep flowing to the household?
Let me know what you think:
The Shady Bunch
When Fraud Runs in the Family
Here’s the story of a shady lady, who abandoned her two teenage daughters and fled the country to avoid going to jail, like her husband had, for ripping off millions of taxpayer dollars.
It’s the story of a man, who was very shady, and walked out on three teenage daughters of his own after getting busted for being part of the same scheme. He and his wife cut off their electronic monitoring devices and vanished, leaving just a typewritten note for their kids.
Together, Tamara Dadyan, her husband Artur Ayvazyan, her brother-in-law, Richard Ayvazyan, and his wife Marietta Terabelian, formed a family fraud ring and made off with $18 million in COVID-19 pandemic aid.
They used fake names and identities stolen from the elderly, deceased, and foreign exchange students to apply for the money. The loot was spent on million-dollar mansions, gold coins, diamonds, jewelry, luxury watches, designer handbags, cryptocurrency, securities, and a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
The whole group was convicted, but three of them managed to escape to a seaside villa in the Mediterranean. They were eventually caught, and now the entire family of fraudsters is behind bars.
The judge presiding over the case couldn’t recall a more “callous” scheme, labeling Richard, the ringleader, a “cold-hearted fraudster” who “views fraud as an achievement.”
And that’s the way they all became the Shady bunch.
 This shady bunch abandoned their own teenage children to avoid prison, but now they’re all behind bars for living a luxurious lifestyle paid for by stealing from taxpayers.
This family of fraudsters isn’t the only clan of cons ripping off taxpayers.
In Minnesota, another shady man was busy defrauding taxpayers with a family of his own. Along with five family members— a brother, two sisters, his mother, and brother-in-law— Gandi Yusuf Mohamed stole more than $10 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program.
Intended to provide nearly 5 million meals to children, they instead spent the money on themselves and kickbacks, giving new meaning to dining “family style.”
Along with their fellow fraudsters, the Mohamed family met with Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison “trying to fool” him into fighting those trying to stop giving them taxpayer money. Ikram Mohamed secretly recorded the infamous meeting and prosecutors say she also collected money to bribe a juror, for which she won’t even face charges. Gandi Mohamed made the maximum $2,500 contribution to Ellison’s re-election campaign.
The Mohamed family of fraudsters didn’t serve any meals, and so far, they haven’t been sentenced to serve any time for their crimes, either.
 Serving up family style fraud: Along with four other relatives, Shakur Abdisalam and his wife Ikram Mohamed stole millions of dollars intended to feed hungry children.
Similarly, most of the members of a Canadian family living in Florida that stole millions of dollars from taxpayers through a sham ministry will likely avoid jail time.
Evan Edwards, his wife Mary Jane, daughter Joy, and son Joshua, made up the fraudulent family ministry that claimed to have nearly 500 employees. Yet, neighbors say they never saw anybody inside the building that was listed as the ministry’s office.
The Edwards’ requested $6 million from the Small Business Administration (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to support their organization during the pandemic. Instead, the government paid them more than $8 million! An 88-year-old accountant who had been suffering from dementia for years signed off on the application they submitted.
With a stated mission of “service to the poor,” the Edwards’ family attempted to purchase a multi-million-dollar mansion at Walt Disney World Resort with the taxpayer money they received.
When federal agents showed up at the Edwards’ home, it was abandoned and “cleared out.” The whole family was later caught speeding away in their Mercedes SUV. They weren’t going on a family vacation either. The vehicle was packed with bags full of shredded documents and they apparently were trying to make a getaway.
The Edwards are referred to as “The Embezzlers” by their Florida neighbors. “We would really like to see them put in prison,” said one. “It’s just so sad to see when scammers take money that’s intended for people who really need it.”
Most of the family will avoid being incarcerated or even charged. While Joshua tried faking a mental illness to avoid punishment, the judge didn’t buy the act. He was the sole member of the family to be sentenced to prison and could be deported.
Talk about family drama!
 FAMILY DRAMA: The Edwards, who neighbors refer to as the Embezzlers, used their fake family ministry to steal millions of taxpayer dollars.
A quartet of grifting grandmothers, who are all sisters, fleeced the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) out of over $11.5 million by filing nearly 200 false claims from fake farmers alleging they faced discrimination when applying for farm aid.
However, “the claimants had not suffered discrimination and, in most cases, had not even attempted to farm,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“The sisters approached people at church gatherings, advising attendees that they were eligible for black farmers litigation settlements, and stated they could apply for financial relief if their ancestors had ever been discriminated against,” says the Special Agent in Charge with USDA’s Office of Inspector General. “The sisters provided attendees with a blank application signature page and asked them to sign it. But the attendees did not complete, or in most cases, even see the applications. The sisters attached the signature pages to fraudulent applications and submitted them to USDA.” The daughter of one of the sisters notarized the fictitious witness statements supporting the discrimination claims.
The swindling sisters spent the money on pricey properties and automobiles. Rosie Bryant bought a $610,000 home in Texas while Lynda Charles and Delois Bryant bought adjoining lots for $97,400 and $87,400 at the Rockwater Village development in North Little Rock. Lynda Charles bought a $58,959 Chevrolet Express van and Delois Bryant purchased a $113,271 Mercedes-Benz G550.
In Washington state, another fraudster faked a disability, with family members pretending to be her caregivers, to steal more than $1.1 million from the Veterans Affairs (VA) Administration.
Kelly Lee-Carroll claimed she required full-time care because she was partially paralyzed and unable to walk. However, she could walk and was very capable of getting around on her own. In fact, she frequently traveled to Las Vegas, where she bought a second home, and vacationed in Mexico and Jamaica, without any caregivers.
Her sister and son, who were designated as her caregivers, billed the VA while simultaneously clocking in at other jobs.
A U.S. attorney involved with the case, noted, “these benefits to pay for care, and for caregivers, need to be carefully utilized so that they serve veterans as intended. They should not go for second homes, cars, exotic trips, or casino gambling as they did in this case. This defendant not only pays the price for her conduct, she roped in her family members who now have felony convictions.”
Lee-Carroll was sentenced to just 17 months in prison and her son got 14 months for swindling the VA for more than a million dollars over a dozen years.
Fraud is all in the family with these folks, and they’re not alone.
Across the country, fraud is sprouting out of too many family trees.
- In Ohio, a married couple of career criminals were paid nearly a million dollars by Medicaid for providing “personal services.” Mamusu Kanu has been convicted of assault and theft three times while her husband, Alieu Conteh, was found guilty of child endangerment and theft. Ohio’s Board of Nursing barred Conteh from working in home health care, but he and his wife started True Home Healthcare LLC anyway. When an investigative reporter showed up at their office, it was empty. The business is still open and listed on the government’s website of available providers. No new criminal indictments or charges have been filed against them related to their personal services business.
- A husband and wife who operated unlicensed assisted living homes in Florida described as “houses of horrors” are accused of welfare fraud, elder abuse, and neglect. Hundreds of 911 calls were made from Cherish Home Care facilities, including multiple reports of individuals with no vital signs. Elderly and disabled residents were treated like prisoners and locked in roach-infested rooms. They were denied food and medicine and had their Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) cards stolen by their keepers.
- Two brothers from Romania, in the U.S. illegally, were part of an identity theft ring that ripped off more than $760,000 of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, causing “substantial hardship” to victims in multiple states. They used stolen beneficiary information to buy candy, energy drinks, and other items in bulk from membership warehouse clubs, which they then resold. Marian Ovidiu Dumitru and Catalin Dumitru “came to the United States illegally and preyed on some of our most vulnerable citizens,” noted a U.S. attorney.
Two Romanian brothers in the U.S. illegally stole food assistance from SNAP beneficiaries, causing the victims “substantial hardship.”
The McMillian family of four defrauded the SBA out of more than half-a-million dollars.
- In Maryland, two police officers are among the nine family members indicted for stealing Medicaid money intended to support people with developmental disabilities.
- Three members of the Flores family from San Antonio, Texas, paid bribes and kickbacks to government employees in exchange for directing millions of dollars of Army contracts to their businesses. One of the fraudsters engaged in other inappropriate behaviors with civilian employees overseeing the contracts that created a conflict of interest he “used to his financial and professional advantage.”
- Santino Coccia fraudulently billed Pennsylvania’s Medicaid program $211,000 for providing personal care services to his father, Albert Coccia Jr., who apparently did not need, nor receive the assistance. The two lived together, along with other family members. At some of the very same times Santino was billing taxpayers, he actually was driving for a rideshare and food-delivery service. Once while on the clock for care in the home, he was involved in a traffic stop. Another time when he billed Medicaid, his father was in court participating in a separate health care fraud case, but Santino was not present. Albert has a previous theft conviction for taking a deposit for work he never completed.
- Mohammed Maio, a convicted felon, and his parents stole nearly $2.2 million of PPP and Economic Injury Disaster Loan relief loans by submitting fraudulent applications for bogus businesses. They spent the money for “personal enrichment, including the purchase of multiple properties.”
- A pair of siblings in Virginia stole more than half-a-million dollars of unemployment benefits by submitting fraudulent claims on behalf of prisoners. While incarcerated for another crime, Antonio Clark recruited other inmates to the scheme and passed their personal information on to his sister, Alicia. Along with another woman, she filed 35 fraudulent claims and collected more than $572,000 before getting caught.
- Two Michigan siblings are suspected of swindling Medicaid by using an app to trick a phone with built-in GPS into thinking it was someplace it was not to receive reimbursement for trips that never took place. There’s no faking their next family trip, which will be to court and then off to prison.
Most Americans work hard to provide for their own families, but these 15 families defrauded taxpayers out of more than $50 million. That’s a lot of money, folks!
While some families have a tradition of running 5Ks on holidays, fraud runs in these families. They’ll steal $5K, or more, and then make a run for it.
 When fraud runs in the family: Some families have a tradition of running 5Ks on holidays. Fraudster families have a tradition of stealing $5K, or more, and then making a run for it.
Committing fraud is literally all relative for these families of felons.
That’s why I’m giving my August 2026 Squeal Award to the Shady Bunch, families full of fraudsters who are chips off the old cell block.
Their next scam-ily reunion is going to be held in slammer.
I’m also closing down these fraudsters’ family businesses. My family plan for fraudsters is the real deal for protecting taxpayers from households that steal. I’ve introduced The No Cash for Cohabitating Kins of Crooks Act that will prohibit government loans, contracts, grants, or other financial payments for goods or services to anyone living with a known fraudster or convicted criminal.
Squeal Award: The Shady Bunch
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Thank you!
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