Fresno man’s career as international arms dealer may be over. He’s arrested by feds – By Robert Rodriguez (Fresno Bee) / May 20 2019
A former Fresno man who went from being an aspiring artist to an international arms dealer has been charged with illegally brokering the sale of military-grade arms, money laundering and conspiracy, U.S. Attorney McGregor W. Scott announced Monday.
Ara Dolarian, 58, was arrested Wednesday at his mother’s home in Fresno by agents with Homeland Security Investigations. Dolarian, who lives in Sofia, Bulgaria, was visiting when federal authorities found him. He remains in custody.
For years, Dolarian quietly operated his Fresno-based company, Dolarian Capital Inc., out of a West Shaw Avenue office. His business neighbors thought for a while that he was importing and exporting tea.
But a BuzzFeed article in 2014 shined the spotlight on Dolarian’s lucrative international arms dealing businesses that sold everything from Soviet T-72 tanks to rocket launchers.
At some point, his arms dealing business also went awry, federal authorities allege.
Dolarian is accused of trying to broker an illegal arms deal in 2013 and 2014 with the Nigerian government. Court documents show Dolarian, through his company Dolarian Capital Inc., was trying to sell high‑explosive bombs, rockets, military-grade firearms and aircraft-mounted cannons from Eastern Europe and South Africa to Nigerian officials.
The problem with the $8.4 million deal, prosecutors allege, is that Dolarian’s company did not have permission from the State Department to do so. Despite a lack of authorization, Dolarian is accused of pursuing the transaction, working with Societe D’Equipments Internationaux (SEI), a French arms brokering company acting on behalf of Nigeria, for the purchase of the weapons and explosives.
The U.S. Attorney’s office, in a news release, said the money paid to Dolarian was funneled by Nigeria through a purported furniture company in Hong Kong. The money was then routed through numerous shell accounts held by Dolarian, and others.
He is accused of using the money to pay off personal expenses, such as federal and state tax debts, and to buy a BMW SUV. But by February 2015, the federal government had seized over $6 million that remained in Dolarian’s accounts.
“Illegal arms brokering represents a threat, not only to U.S. national security, but to the security of the international community,” said Ryan L. Spradlin, HSI Special Agent in Charge.
Dolarian faces a maximum of 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine for unlicensed arms brokering; 20 years in prison and up to a $500,000 fine for money laundering and five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for conspiracy.
Dolarian’s exploits in arms dealing is a far cry from his humble beginnings in his hometown of Fresno. His mother, Rose Dolarian, was a peace activist and his father, Ara, was at one time chairman of the Art Department at Fresno State.
The younger Dolarian initially followed his father into the art world. He studied sculpture at the prestigious Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine.
“I have tried other things, but this is all that interests me,” Dolarian, then 23, said in a 1984 story in The Bee. “I don’t want to ‘be an artist.’ I just want to make sculptures.”
This is the office complex at 4321 N. West where Ara Dolarian military grade ammunition. THE FRESNO BEE
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/crime/article230614209.html
