A California real estate broker has fled the authorities rather than reporting to serve prison time for her part in a massive family Covid-loan fraud scheme — making her the third convict in the group of eight to go on the lam.
In Nov. 2020, Tamara Dadyan, then 39, was indicted, along with her husband, his brother, and his brother’s wife, for trying to submit at least 35 fraudulent loan applications seeking more than $5.6 million in Covid relief money meant to keep small businesses afloat during the pandemic-driven lockdown.
Several months later, in March 2021, a cousin of Dadyan’s and three additional accomplices were added in a new indictment, which alleged the group of eight had submitted a total of 150 false loan applications seeking more than $21.9 million. They succeeded in acquiring around $18 million. The update also added charges of conspiracy to commit money laundering and aggravated identity theft to the charges Dadyan and her three familial co-conspirators already faced of bank fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud.
The government alleged the defendants had spent the pandemic business loans on luxury homes, gold coins, diamonds, jewelry, imported furniture, designer purses and clothes, cryptocurrency, and securities. One defendant admitted to spending $24,000 on a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Another said he’d spent $35,000 on a Rolex.
Prosecutors claimed the core of the scam operated from the house Dadyan and her…
