Man Charged by Mistake in Murder Plot Sentenced on Lesser Charges

A North Hollywood man who was mistakenly charged with plotting to assassinate a U.S. Secret Service agent last year was sentenced Monday to 11 months in federal custody on a lesser charge of obstructing justice.

Rafael Kazareyants, 44, was originally indicted along with four acquaintances on charges of offering an undercover FBI operative $50,000 to murder a Secret Service agent.

There was a plot, not to murder the agent, but to bribe him to drop fraud charges lodged against one of the men. That fact was lost in a mistranslation of secretly recorded conversations involving the men and an ex-felon who said he had been hired to carry out the crime.

The government backed away from its murder-for-hire charges months later after the defendants’ secretly recorded conversations were retranslated. Prosecutors also acknowledged that the undercover operative’s account was exaggerated.

Kazareyants, who was initially denied bail because of the severity of the charges, spent more than seven months behind bars. Now free, he was ordered by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson to surrender next month to begin serving the rest of his sentence.

Outside court, Kazareyants acknowledged taking part in a bribery plot, but he said he and his friends were “scammed” by the undercover operative, who has a criminal history that includes felony convictions and drug use. Kazareyants condemned the FBI and the U.S. attorney’s office for taking the informant’s word.

Two defendants named in the discredited assassination plot were previously sentenced to 15 months and 6 months, respectively. Another man was exonerated of all charges.