2 Couples Are Charged With Welfare Fraud

GLENDALE — If you go on vacations in Europe while collecting welfare, do not take snapshots of yourself enjoying Stonehenge and the canals of Venice on the public purse.

That would appear to be the moral if the district attorney’s office proves its case against some of the four Glendale residents arrested Tuesday on suspicion of welfare fraud who allegedly collected nearly $200,000 in public assistance while running businesses, amassing assets and leading lives of luxury.

Businessman Rafik Sinai, 47, and his wife, Lida Zeynalvand, 39, were accused of defrauding a variety of public assistance programs of more than $157,000, while enjoying European holidays.

Prosecutors also allege that Albert Moghaddam--owner, manager and editor of a Middle Eastern magazine, Daneshmand--illegally accepted $29,000 in welfare while running the publication. Moghaddam is in custody along with his wife, Anait Abramyan.

Sinai was charged Tuesday with 11 felony offenses, including one count each of welfare fraud and grand theft relating to falsely obtained housing subsidies plus nine counts of perjury.

At a hearing Tuesday, Deputy Dist. Atty. Steven Cooley, head the Welfare Fraud Division, urged the court to maintain bail at $250,000, citing a 1997 summer vacation by the Sinai family, which included travels to several European countries.

“It is shocking that individuals receiving this amount of public benefits are enjoying sites such as Stonehenge, the Roman Colosseum and the Eiffel Tower before floating down the canals of Venice,” Cooley said.

“There’s something wrong with this picture, and we have the pictures to prove it,” he said, referring to family vacation snapshots seized as evidence.

During his brief arraignment, Sinai pleaded not guilty to all charges. Outside court, his lawyer Richard E. Nahigian professed his client’s innocence.

“From what I know about my client and from what he explained to me, he has not violated any section of the law,” he said.

According to court records, the Sinai family has received welfare benefits since 1987 in the form of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), Food Stamps, Medi-Cal and Section 8 housing subsidies.

Over that same period, they were shown to have owned several vehicles and possessed cash and other assets in excess of federal limits. Sinai also was employed at MGA and Associates, a structural engineering firm in Glendale, prosecutors said.

According to the search warrant, authorities seized more than $50,000 in U.S. currency from the couple. In court, Nahigian contended that the money belonged to Sinai’s brother in Iran, not his client.

“This is a common assertion,” Cooley said of Nahigian’s comment. “But when individuals can afford vacations of a lifetime and have $50,000 laying around, they are completely in violation of all regulations designed to assure that only the truly needy are receiving the benefits of public assistance.”

The cases against the two couples are the latest arrests in a continuing effort to crack down on sophisticated and major welfare fraud violators. thus far, the district attorney’s office has assigned 12 investigators to pursue those cases.

Authorities began investigating the Sinai family last August when they received a letter signed only by a group calling itself Citizens Against Welfare Fraud. “Welfare fraud affects all of us, the taxpayers, and those who commit the fraud often abuse the system to the fullest,” said the letter, submitted as evidence to the court.

The letter then went on to detail how Sinai, who the group said also used the name “Sinanian,” had been in business for 10 years and received checks issued in the name of his sister’s daughter, Victoria.

Sinai’s wife as well as Anait Abramyan and her husband, Albert Moghaddam, are scheduled to be arraigned today before Municipal Court Judge Dale S. Fischer.