KTLA

2 L.A.-area men plead guilty to debit card bank fraud, buying over $22,000 in money orders

A judge's gavel is shown in a file photo. (Credit: iStock / Getty Images Plus)

Two California men have pleaded guilty in federal court in New Hampshire to using fraudulent debit cards to make ATM withdrawals and buying over $22,000 in postal money orders.

Vahan Aghajanyan, 25, of Glendale, and Garnik Saroyan, 26, of Sun Valley, pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to commit bank fraud. They are scheduled to be sentenced on June 24.

According to court documents, the two traveled to New Hampshire and Maine to use the debit cards encoded with other people’s bank account information. In October 2018, postal employees in the two states reported suspicious transactions involving the two men.

Police in York, Maine, stopped their vehicle. A search of three cellphones revealed a map of post office locations in New Hampshire and photographs of Aghajanyan holding stacks of cash and postal money orders, prosecutors said.