U.S. seizes Los Angeles mansion bought for Armenian politician with bribes

July 9 (UPI) -- The United States is seizing a 30,000-square-foot California mansion owned by the family of an Armenian politician that federal prosecutors alleged was bought with bribe payments.

The so-called mega mansion is located in the Holmby Hills neighborhood in the westside of Los Angeles and belongs to the sons of Gagik Khachatryan, the chairman of Armenia's State Revenue Committee from 2008 to 2014 and the eastern European nation's finance minister from 2014 to 2016.

Under the seizure agreement, the United States will gain possession of the mansion that it will sell "at the highest obtainable market price" of which it will retain 85% with the remainder being returned to Khachatryan's sons and a corporation under their names.

"We do not tolerate corruption in the United States and we will not allow foreign officials to use our country to facilitate their own corruption," U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement .

"Our recovery of these ill-gotten gains should send a message to corrupt officials throughout the world that they will find no safe harbor here."

Federal prosecutors moved to seize the property in May 2022 on allegations that businessman Sedrak Arustamyan paid Khachatryan more than $20 million in bribes in exchange for favorable tax treatment, and those payments went toward the Holmby Hills property.

According to the release from the Justice Department announcing its civil forfeiture complaint in 2022, the property had been recently listed for $63.5 million.

The bribery payments are also subject to criminal prosecution in Armenia, where Arustamyan faces charges filed against him in 2019 for laundering large amounts of money and tax evasion, according to the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia .