A Pennsylvania arms
dealer who federal investigators said conspired with two former Lake County
Sheriff’s Police officers in a gun-buying scheme has found guilty of
multiple charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of
Indiana said.
Vahan Kelerchian,
56, of Richboro, Pa.--doing business as Armament Services International (ASI)--was
convicted late on Thursday following a two-week jury trial of making false
statements and of money laundering, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Kelerchian was found not guilty of bribery.
According to
evidence presented at trial, Kelerchian conspired with Joseph Kumstar and
Ronald Slusser, two now former LCSP officers who have already pleaded guilty
in the case, to knowingly make false statements related to the acquisition
of firearms. Kumstar and Slusser used their positions as sworn
law-enforcement officers to acquire from Kelerchian, as a holder of a Class
3 federal firearms licensee, 71 fully automatic machine guns in the name of
the LCSP, in the knowledge that the LCSP was not going to be the true owner
of the weapons, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Kelerchian, Kumstar,
and Slusser did so by using law-enforcement letterhead to create letters
which falsely represented that the LCSP would be using the machine guns,
manufactured after 1986, in the course of its law-enforcement duties, the
U.S. Attorney’s Office said, as machine guns made after 1986 may only be
purchased by law-enforcement agencies, not individual officers.
The machine guns
cost between $1,200 and $1,600 and, after being delivered to the LCSP, were
transported off site and parted out, with some of the barrels--also known as
the “uppers”--split between the two officers and some returned to Kelerchian.
The uppers in turn were sold for twice the price of the gun itself--at
between $3,000 and $3,600--because post-1986 parts are not available to the
general public, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Kelerchian also
used his company to assist Kumstar and Slusser in acquiring 74 restricted
laser aiming sights, once again using official LCSP and Lowell PD
letterhead. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has restricted the use of
these sights--which have a visible laser capable of being seen more than 50
feet away and an invisible sight capable of sighting on a target more than a
mile away when used with infrared goggles--to law enforcement and military
personnel only. Kelerchian, along with Kumstar and Slusser, used their
positions to acquire these devices and sell them to the general public or
keep the devices for themselves, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
The case was
investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the
Department of Defense’s Criminal Investigative Services; the FBI; the FDA,
and the IRS.