Armen Apoyan
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Two men were sentenced Tuesday to mandatory 20-year prison terms for first-degree identity theft by using a card-skimming device attached to an ATM in Waikiki to steal people’s credit and debit card information.
The Hawaii Paroling Authority will decide how much of their 20-year terms Armen Apoyan and Argishti Khachaturyan will have to serve before they can be eligible for parole.
Circuit Judge Rom Trader credited Apoyan with the time he has already been in custody since his arrest in Washington state in March 2014. Trader gave Khachaturyan credit for the time he’s been in custody since his arrest in California in September 2013.
Trader did not impose restitution because Apoyan repaid Central Pacific Bank the $11,764 it claims it had to reimburse its customers.
Both men pleaded guilty in January.
The city prosecutor says Apoyan and Khachaturyan traveled to Honolulu from Los Angeles in February 2013 and installed a skimming device on the outside of a CPB ATM at the Waikiki Shopping Plaza. They retrieved the device three days later and used the information it recorded to make counterfeit credit cards to withdraw money from victims’ accounts at other ATMs in Honolulu and Waikiki.
The state says the men continued to use the counterfeit cards after they returned to California.
In 2011 two other California men installed card-skimming devices inside self-service gasoline pumps on Oahu. Both men were found guilty of identity theft in trial and sentenced to mandatory 20-year prison terms.