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U.S. lays more charges, ups reward for Ryan Wedding, Canadian Olympian turned alleged drug lord
Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI director Kash Patel speak about Ryan Wedding
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel outlined their case on Wednesday against Ryan Wedding, a former Team Canada Olympian who they say became one of the most powerful drug lords in the world.
Wedding, an alleged Canadian drug lord who competed for Canada as a snowboarder at the 2002 Olympic Games in Utah, is listed as one of the FBI's 10 most-wanted fugitives.
Bondi said the U.S. Department of Justice is charging Wedding with "two additional counts of witness tampering and intimidation, money laundering and drug trafficking."
"He controls one of the most prolific and violent drug trafficking organizations in this world," Bondi said.
Wedding is accused of murdering a federal witness after he was indicted in 2024 through the use of a now deleted website called "The Dirty News," where photographs of the witness and his wife were displayed to locate him, Bondi said.
The witness was gunned down in a restaurant in Medellin, Colombia, before he could testify against Wedding, Bondi said.
The U.S. State Department is offering a reward of up to $15 million US for Wedding's capture, up from $10 million.
More than 35 people indicted
She emphasized that "drugs are killing our kids," and the U.S. would pursue both street-level drug dealers and international drug kingpins.
"We are coming for you. We will find you. And you will be accountable and held to justice for your crimes," Bondi said.
She said he is responsible for importing 60 metric tonnes a year into Los Angeles via semi-trailer trucks from Mexico.
She noted that more than 2,000 kilograms of cocaine and numerous weapons have been seized and about $3.2 million in cryptocurrency was recovered.
She also said $13 million in physical assets have been confiscated.
'Modern-day' Pablo Escobar
FBI director Kash Patel likened Wedding to a “modern-day iteration” of Pablo Escobar and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and implored citizens to report information they may have on the accused.
Patel said Wedding is responsible for “engineering a narco-trafficking and narco-terrorism program that we have not seen in a long time.”
Patel added that the U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI will “lead the effort to go out there and make sure that these animals are brought to justice.”
"Fugitive Ryan Wedding remains one of the top threats to Canadian public safety," he said.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bondi-patel-ryan-wedding-ohna-briefing-9.6984421
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Po4vypUpXic
Four California Residents Sentenced to Prison in Connection with $16M Hospice Fraud and Money Laundering Scheme
Nov 18,2025
Four California residents were sentenced to prison for their roles in defrauding Medicare of nearly $16 million through sham hospice companies and laundering the fraudulent proceeds.
Yesterday, Juan Carlos Esparza, 33, of Valley Village, was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $1,825,012, and Susanna Harutyunyan, 39, of Winnetka, was sentenced to 15 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $2,822,963.
In October 2025, Karpis Srapyan, 35, of Winnetka, was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $3,203,574.
In September 2025, Mihran Panosyan, 47, of Winnetka, was sentenced to 57 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $4,680,146.
Additionally, in May 2025, Petros Fichidzhyan, 44, of Granada Hills, was sentenced to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution of $17,129,060.
According to court documents, Esparza schemed with others, including co-defendants Fichidzhyan and Srapyan, to bill Medicare for hospice services that were medically unnecessary and never provided. From July 2019 until January 2023, Esparza, Fichidzhyan, and Srapyan operated four sham hospices, one of which, House of Angels Hospice, was owned by Esparza. Fichidzhyan, Esparza and Srapyan concealed the scheme by using foreign nationals’ names and personally identifiable information to act as straw owners for the hospices and to open bank accounts, submit information to Medicare and sign property leases. They also controlled and used cell phones in the names of the foreign nationals in furtherance of the scheme. In total, Medicare paid the sham hospices nearly $16 million.
Fichidzhyan, Esparza, and Srapyan worked with others, including co-defendants Harutyunyan and Panosyan, to launder the fraudulent proceeds. As part of the money laundering scheme, the defendants maintained fraudulent identification documents and other documents associated with the sham hospices, as well as bank documents, checkbooks and credit and debit cards in the names of purported foreign owners. After defrauding Medicare, the defendants moved the funds between various assets and accounts, including bank accounts in the names of shell companies, to conceal the scheme.
In July 2025, Esparza pleaded guilty to health care fraud and transactional money laundering, Harutyunyan pleaded guilty to transactional money laundering, and Srapyan pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud and transactional money laundering. In June 2025, Panosyan pleaded guilty to concealment money laundering. In February 2025, Fichidzhyan pleaded guilty to health care fraud, aggravated identity theft, and concealment money laundering. At sentencing in May 2025, the court preliminarily ordered the forfeiture of two homes bought with fraud proceeds. The government has also seized $2,920,383 from bank accounts associated with the fraud.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/four-california-residents-sentenced-prison-connection-16m-hospice-fraud-and-money-laundering