BEVERLY HILLS— A lawyer with offices in Beverly Hills and ties to Armenian organized crime, has agreed to plead guilty to five federal offenses on July 8.

39-year-old Attorney Edgar Sargsyan, from Calabasas, has been charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, two counts of bribing a public official, and two counts of making false statements to federal investigators. Sargsyan agreed to plead guilty to the five federal offenses which carries a penalty of 50 years in prison.

Within the plea deal, Sargsyan admitted to paying tens of thousands of dollars from 2015 to 2017 to special agents who were part of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security Investigations.

Sargsyan paid an HSI agent at least $32,000 in checks, and between $45,000 to $50,000 in cash in return for the HSI agent to search law enforcement databases to corruptly obtain information that he would give to Sargsyan.

In addition, the HSI agent altered a Department of Homeland Security database in order to make a foreign national client of Sargsyan’s firm ‘more likely’ to be allowed to enter into the United States. Furthermore, another part of the plea deal illustrated the fact that the HSI agent attempted to prepare a document that would allow one of Sargsyan’s relatives into the country.

Secondly, Sargsyan paid an FBI agent approximately $10,000 for providing ‘protection’, which included running queries through law enforcement databases and warning Sargsyan to “stay away” from certain individuals who were the targets of criminal investigations, according to the plea agreement.

The FBI agent who worked at the San Francisco field house accepted cash payments from Sargsyan through trips to Southern California and staying in luxury hotels that Sargsyan paid for. Gifts from Sargsyan to the FBI agent included a $36,000 motorcycle for running background checks on a particular individual. Other gifts included a $30,000 cashiers check that was made to appear as a check for the agents business.

Sargsyan also plead guilty to two counts of making false statements to federal investigators. The charges are in connection with interviews that took place in September of 2017 where Sargsyan stated that the $30,000 cashiers check to the FBI agent was a loan. The second instance was in December of 2018 where Sargsyan stated that he did not pay bribes to the FBI agent.

Lastly, Sargsyan admitted to being a part of a conspiracy that defrauded financial institutions by illegally obtaining credit cards in the names of individuals who had previously been in the United States on J1 visitor visas. Once the credit cards were released, Sargsyan and his fellow conspirator made charges for more than $940,000 that were charged to the two businesses that Sargsyan controlled, which are Pillar Law Group and Regdalin Group.

Sentencing for Sargsyan is set for September 28.