California Truck Driver Pleads Guilty to Meat Theft Scam

U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Nebraska
July 16, 2013

United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that Artak Medjbarian of Sherman Oaks, California, pled guilty to conspiring with others to attempt to steal $163,000 worth of beef products from a Nebraska Beef facility in Omaha, Nebraska. Medjbarian, age 33, was charged in May 2012 by a federal grand jury in a scheme with others to steal loads of meat cargo by pretending to be the legitimate freight haulers to whom authority to transport the loads had been given. The indictment specifically charged a conspiracy to commit wire fraud and to engage in the interstate transportation of stolen property.

The indictment alleged that Medjbarian used the identity of a legitimate trucking company in Arizona to bid on hauling a load of meat from Nebraska Beef to California. Due to discrepancies with respect to the documentation forwarded by unknown co-conspirators on Medjbarian’s behalf, the freight brokers contacted the owners of the true Lopez Trucking and determined that Lopez Trucking did not have trucks operating under their authority in the state of Nebraska on January 27, 2012, the day Medjbarian showed up at Nebraska Beef pretending to have the transport authority of Lopez Trucking. The Omaha Police were contacted, and Medjbarian was initially arrested on local charges.

The guilty plea was entered before the Honorable Laurie Smith Camp. Judge Smith Camp set the sentencing of this matter for October 7, 2013. Medjbarian is detained pending sentencing. Medjbarian faces a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison on the conspiracy conviction.

In addition to the Omaha Police Department, the case was also investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol and by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.