February 13 at 3:30 p.m. PST

Victim Held Without Medical Care for Five Days while Captors Sought $1 Million

LOS ANGELES – Two men who participated in a kidnapping plot in which a Van Nuys man who was accidentally shot, shocked with a taser and held captive for five days without medical treatment while his kidnappers attempted to negotiate a $1 million ransom payment were each sentenced today to spend decades in federal prison.

Vagan Adzhemyan, 44, of Costa Mesa, was sentenced by United States District Judge Jacqueline H. Nguyen to 30 years in federal prison. Galvin Shaun Gibson, 33, of Mira Loma, received a 27-year sentence from Judge Nguyen.

“No one deserves what defendants did to him,” Judge Nguyen said this afternoon. In issuing the 360-month prison sentence to Adzhemyan, Judge Nguyen said he showed “no conscience or remorse.”

Following a trial last year, Adzhemyan and Gibson were convicted of conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping. Gibson was additionally convicted of operating a marijuana grow at his house.

A third defendant indicted in the case, Suren Garibyan, 34, of North Hollywood, pleaded guilty late last year to two federal kidnapping charges. Judge Nguyen sentenced Garibyan in April 2011 to 210 months in federal prison.

The kidnapping took place during the early morning hours of July 29, 2009 in an underground parking garage at a Van Nuys apartment building where the victim’s parents lived. During the abduction, the kidnapping victim was accidentally shot by a friend, who was violently assaulted by the kidnappers during the incident but was able to retrieve a gun the victim had obtained for self-defense. The victim was shocked with a taser by his abductors before he was forced into a waiting vehicle. Over the next five days, the victim was bound and forced to wear a blindfold as he was held at various locations in Southern California, including a restaurant owned by Gibson – the Avenue Grills on Crenshaw Boulevard in South Los Angeles – and a townhouse on East 5th Street in Ontario.

While holding the victim captive, the kidnappers directed him to use cellular telephones to make calls to family members and close associates in the Los Angeles area and in Russia to secure a $1 million ransom in exchange for the victim’s safe release. The victim was blindfolded and bound at his hands and feet. He was beaten, and at times his captors directed blows at his wounded abdomen. The captors withheld necessary medical treatment for the victim’s life-threatening gunshot wound.

On August 3, Adzhemyan and Garibyan used the victim’s ATM card to withdraw cash from his bank account, while Gibson and his three pit bull dogs kept watch over the blindfolded victim at Gibson’s residence on Delaware River Drive in Mira Loma

All three men were taken into custody on August 3, when the kidnapping victim was rescued from Gibson’s residence by a team of Los Angeles Police Department SWAT officers. After the victim was rescued, he was immediately taken to a hospital where he remained for almost two months and underwent three surgeries. The victim’s “treating physician testified at trial that victim…likely would have died if officers had not rescued him when they did,” prosecutors wrote in sentencing papers.

On the day of the arrests, investigators discovered a large-scale marijuana grow operation in Gibson’s residence, where virtually the entire second floor of the house had been converted into marijuana grow and drying areas.

The investigation into the kidnapping was conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department’s Robbery-Homicide Division and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Violent Crimes Squad. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney E. Martin Estrada and Justice Department Trial Attorney Cristina M. Moreno.

CONTACT: Assistant United States Attorney E. Martin Estrada

Violent & Organized Crime Section

(213) 894-3358

Former Bank of America Associate General Counsel
Joins Financial Industry Group in San Francisco Office

(February 14, 2012, SanFrancisco) – Reed Smith LLP today announced the addition of Marc Lackner as apartner in its Financial Industry Group (FIG) in the firm’s San Franciscooffice.

Mr. Lackner was formerlyan Associate General Counsel in the Legal Department of Bank of America, wherehe managed the Mortgage Litigation Group, providing litigation support for thatinstitution’s Consumer Real Estate and Legacy Asset Servicing Divisions.

“Marc is alreadywell-known and highly regarded at Reed Smith as a result of his collaborationwith several of our attorneys for many years,” said Perry A. Napolitano, Chairof the firm’s Financial Industry Group. “His knowledge and expertise areexceptionally well aligned with the work the FIG currently handles for banks andmortgage companies, as well as for work we expect to be doing in the future forthese financial institutions. We are quite excited that Marc is joining ReedSmith.”

After Bank of America’s2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial, Mr. Lackner was responsible for theBank’s combined mortgage litigation, which grew to more than 7,000 openlitigation matters, including more than 200 class actions. He alsomanaged the integration of the legacy Countrywide and BofA litigation groups,and participated in the 2008 resolution of Countrywide’s legacy “SalesPractices” attorneys general investigations and enforcement actions, whichresulted in the first significant residential mortgage loan modificationprogram and became the model for HAMP. In addition, Mr. Lackner assistedin the management of legacy Countrywide’s shareholder, MBS securities, and repand warranty litigation, including issues of corporate separateness andsuccessor liability.

When Bank of Americashifted to an enterprise-wide litigation group in 2010 to deal with singleplaintiff consumer litigation, Mr. Lackner managed the group, handling some1,000 of the institution’s mortgage litigation matters, including class andregulatory enforcement actions.

“I am delighted to bejoining Reed Smith, which has an excellent reputation and record,” said Mr.Lackner. “I already enjoy strong relationships with David Powell, MaryHackett and other members of the firm, and am looking forward to working moreclosely with them on the matters that we have already been handling togetherfor many years for BofA, with an eye toward expanding that work to otherbanking institutions.”

Reed Smith’s 220-lawyer Financial Industry Groupis one of the largest practices in the world dedicated to representing clients inthe financial sector. It provides representation in finance, commercialrestructuring and bankruptcy/insolvency, financial services litigation,investment management and funds, financial services regulation, and structuredfinance. The firm has represented banks and financial institutions formore than 130 years, and this strong tradition continues today as it advises amajority of the world’s top financial institutions in the United States,Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Mr. Lackner joined Bank ofAmerica in 1997 as a Senior Counsel, assuming primary responsibility for theBank’s Consumer Real Estate (“CRE”) litigation in 1999. In 2003, hebecame an Associate General Counsel and assumed management of the Bank’sConsumer Products Litigation Group, which provided litigation support toConsumer Products (CRE, Insurance Services, Deposit Products, ATM/Debit ande-Commerce), as well as Card, Consumer Special Assets (subprime real estate,sub-prime auto, auto lease, and manufactured housing), Dealer FinancialServices (indirect auto lending), Vendor Management, Corporate Marketing andCommunications, Tax, and Bank Regulatory. During this period, he alsomanaged the integration of the MBNA litigation group and its litigationportfolio.

From December 2003through March 2004, Mr. Lackner was BofA’s interim Director of Litigation,before resuming management of the Consumer Products Litigation Group. In2004, he served as the Bank’s representative in its successful support of theCalifornia tort reform effort, Prop 64, as a member of the steering committeethat drafted the state-wide initiative language.

Since 2000, Mr. Lacknerhas been the Bank’s primary National Bank Act preemption litigation resourcein-house, including managing its amicus support in Watters v. Wachovia Bank,550 U.S. 1 (2007) and Cuomo v. Clearing House Association, 557 U.S. ___,129 S.Ct. 2710 (2009).

Mr. Lackner joined Bank of America in 1997 after12 years at Steefel, Levitt & Weiss in San Francisco, where he was a memberfrom 1990-1997, and Co-chair/Chair of the Litigation Department from1994-1996. At Steefel, his practice focused on the representation offinancial institutions, including Bank of America. Mr. Lackner’srepresentation of Bank of America began in 1993 with his participation in theBank’s most significant jury trial, a $2.8 billion price-fixing classaction. Although the alleged co-conspirators settled for $55 million,Bank of America refused to settle, resulting in a 10-week jury trial in SanFrancisco Superior Court and a defense verdict, affirmed on appeal.

A 1983 graduate of the University of California,Hastings College of the Law, Mr. Lackner is a member of the Board of SanFrancisco Legal Aid – Employment Law Center.

AboutReed Smith LLP

ReedSmith is a global relationship law firm with nearly 1700 lawyers in 23 officesthroughout the United States, the United Kingdom, Continental Europe, Asia andthe Middle East.

OurFinancial Industry Group is comprised of more than 220 lawyers organizedon a cross-border, cross-discipline basis, and dedicated to representingclients involved in the financial sector, advising most of the topfinancial institutions in the world. As well as being authorities in theirareas of law, FIG lawyers have a particular understanding of the financialservices industry sector, enabling the practice to evaluate risks, and toanticipate and identify the legal support needed by clients. Lawyers in thegroup advise on transactional finance covering the full spectrum of financialproducts, litigation, commercial restructuring, bankruptcy, investmentmanagement, consumer compliance and bank regulation, including all aspects ofregulatory issues, such as examinations, enforcement and expansion proposals.For more information, visit reedsmith.com/fig