Man Gets 4 Years in Recycling Fraud Case

A man described by prosecutors as the ringleader of a $3-million recycling racket was sentenced to four years in state prison under a plea bargain approved in court Friday.

Migran Changulyan, 35, of Glendale had pleaded not guilty to grand theft, fraud and conspiracy last December, for which he faced a maximum prison sentence of eight years.

But on Friday, he pleaded no contest to grand theft before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Terry Green and admitted he helped illegally cash in recycled cans and bottles between July 2000 and October 2002.

Changulyan, an unemployed truck dispatcher, was one of 15 people accused of defrauding the state’s recycling program by hauling bottles and cans from Mexico and neighboring states and redeeming them in Los Angeles.

They were arrested last October after a year-long investigation and accused of participating in the largest recycling scam uncovered since state consumers began paying deposits on aluminum, plastic and glass containers in 1987.

Authorities said the ring purchased aluminum cans as scrap in states that do not require recycling deposits and cashed them in at California recycling centers.

Cans bought for about $950 a ton in neighboring states would be worth about $2,450 a ton in California, officials said. Recyclable plastic obtained out of state would be worth about 10 times more in California, with a ton of plastic bottles bringing about $910 a ton here.

The deposit in California is 2.5 cents for containers less than 24 ounces and 5 cents for those that are larger.

Consumers can recoup the deposits at state-licensed recycling centers where the containers are weighed and a redemption value paid. The state then reimburses the recycling center.

Los Angeles Deputy Dist. Atty. Diana Callaghan said the recycling ring was buying bottles and cans in bulk from out-of-state recycling centers under the false business name Paper Recycling of Nevada.

Instead of using the material in the manufacture of new products, Changulyan and his confederates took the bottles and cans to other recyclers in the Los Angeles area and redeemed them again.

Changulyan’s attorney, Dennis Wilson, was unavailable for comment.