A federal jury found a Pennsylvania gun dealer guilty of working with Lake County police officers to use their positions to sell weapons parts on the black market.
The jury convicted Vahan Kelerchian, who owns Armaments International Services, of one count each of conspiracy to provide false information to a federal firearm licensee, conspiracy to defraud the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, conspiracy to make false statements and conspiracy to launder money. They also convicted him of three counts of making false statements, but acquitted him of one count of bribery.
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The verdict came Thursday, according to court records, after 10 days of testimony.
Federal attorneys accused Kelerchian of working with then-Lake County Sheriff’s Department officers Ronald Slusser and Joseph Kumstar to use their positions with the department to buy automated machine guns and laser sights that only the military and law enforcement agencies are allowed to buy.
The men would receive the shipments instead of the sheriff’s department, however, and work with Kelerchian to sell parts of the weapons on the black market. They bought 71 guns and 74 sights in total from 2008 to 2010.
Barrels from some of the guns were found by police in Montreal, Canada, during a search of a gang, and some of the sights were discovered after police got into a shootout with a man in Mississippi.
Kelerchian’s attorney, Kerry Conor, said they were happy with the jury’s acquittal on the bribery charge, but were disappointed with the rest of the verdict. She also blamed Slusser and Kumstar, saying he trusted them and they then lied about his involvement.
“Vahan is a dedicated family man with a wife and children, and other than these exaggerated charges he has no prior criminal history,” she said. “In the decades he has been a federally licensed firearms dealer Vahan has had 100 percent clean audits and positive relationships with ATF agents, manufacturers, and law enforcement clients.”
The verdict also means that Kumstar and Slusser, who both pled guilty, will finally serve their sentences. They were both sentenced in February 2013 — Slusser to 70 months in prison, and Kumstar to 51 months — but federal attorneys asked that they not report to prison until they could testify at Kelerchian’s trial.
Sentencing for Kelerchian is set for Jan. 28.