The Los Angeles police arrested eight Armenians who are charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a statement.

The 36-count indictment unsealed today alleges that the defendants used the bank accounts, which were opened in the names that appeared on the altered passports, to write bad checks to other fraudulently obtained bank accounts. The defendants allegedly exploited bank rules that allowed them to transfer money from one account to another, and then to immediately withdraw funds at ATMs in Las Vegas casinos and other locations before the checks bounced.

The indictment alleges that the defendants used 331 fraudulently altered Armenian passports to steal, or attempt to steal, $1,556,336 from Bank of America. They actually obtained approximately $1.12 million.

The defendants arrested Ara Malkhasyan, 48, Smbat Khechumyan, 38, Sveta Khechumyan, 45 (Smbat’s sister and the wife of Malkhasyan), Harutyun Petrosyants, 30, Artur Harutyunyan, 34, Khachatur Chobanyan, 38, Jivan Hakhnazaryan, 49, and Arman Grigoryan, 37.

The ninth defendant in this case – Artak Okhoyan, 29, of Burbank – has agreed through his attorney to surrender to federal authorities tomorrow.

The indictment charges all of the defendants with conspiracy to commit bank fraud, a charge that carries a statutory maximum penalty of 30 years in federal prison. Additionally, all of the defendants are charged in at least one substantive count of bank fraud and aggravated identity theft.