Who is Lev Aslan Dermen? Which U.D.P. Minister Did He Bribe?

Lev Aslan Dermen

A storm is brewing in the ruling United Democratic Party ahead of its national convention in February. This on the heels of the release of U.S. court documents of a massive tax fraud case. One of the documents is a deposition, eighteen pages long, against Lev Aslan Dermen by his business partner.  Dermen is originally from Amenia, but has U.S. and Belize citizenship and now the case is threatening to rock the U.D.P. to its core.  Allegations of corruption, bribery, and fraud are now being linked to ministers.  We first take a look at Dermen’s connection to Belize.  He was once named Levon Termendzhyan and his name appears on page two hundred and eighty-seven of the Auditor General’s Special Nationality Report on the Immigration and Nationality Department for the period 2011 to 2013.  He is listed as an American national and was one of the many persons who obtained nationality certificates in the numbers book on dates that were earlier, on the same day or very close to the date when their B.N.A. files were opened in the file diary. He received his nationality certificate in September 2013.  The Auditor-General stated that these inconsistencies made it appear as if a fraudulent citizenship programme was operating. In most cases, the nationality files for such persons were not found when requested for examination by Audit. As such, no nationality file was found for Dermen.  As for a passport, the report says that no passport was seen issued to Levon Termendzhyan prior to October 2013.  Either that is the case or he changed his name since Termendhyan now goes by the name Lev Aslan Dermen.  Dermen is waiting to stand trial in Salt Lake City, Utah after being accused of leading a five hundred million dollar tax fraud against the I.R.S.  In the court documents, it says that Dermen bribed a sitting, high ranking government minister who was being paid twenty-five thousand U.S. dollars monthly by Dermen. This allegation is said to be corroborated with text messages between the U.D.P. minister and Jacob Kingston, one of the key players who pleaded guilty to the fraud.  The reports are that Dermen was using a certain government minister to obtain a diplomatic posting in Las Vegas.  The minister reportedly was pushing for Dermen to be appointed, but the effort failed after U.S. authorities, who knew of Dermen’s past, thwarted the plan. The minister’s name is expected to be released later this month during the trial which is set to comment on January twenty-seventh.  A request from the Prime Minister for comment went unanswered.