DLansky Posted January 28, 2018 Report Share Posted January 28, 2018 I have not been able to find a record of Mr Kelerchian being sentenced, but I did come across this case where a federal court upheld the non-renewal/revocation by the ATF of the FFL's that Armament Services International needs to continue in business. The wheels of justice move slowly because they are so heavy. But when they catch up to you, you will get crushed. it looks like that time is coming for Vahan and ASI. https://www.paed.uscourts.gov/documents/opinions/17D0797P.pdf Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petroleum 1 Posted January 28, 2018 Report Share Posted January 28, 2018 (edited) Good read...i wouldnt want their legal bills. Going by that doc aw does not have a valid FFL right now. Edited January 28, 2018 by Petroleum 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chopper28 Posted January 29, 2018 Report Share Posted January 29, 2018 Sold two items to Vahan several years ago. One was NFA and one was not. Transaction went very smoothly. Found him to be easy to deal with and very quick payment. Met him once at the Louisville gun show and found him to be friendly enough. All this went down before his current legal issues. FWIW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLansky Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 Eight years and 4 months. must surrender immediately. cannot remain out on bond during appeal. ouch. http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/federal-judge-sentences-a-former-east-coast-gun-dealer-to/article_f8949955-f941-5a28-9c9c-33bfbf4e2cf3.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalbert Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 Yeah, I saw that shortly after it came out yesterday...Ouch is right! David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoscoeTurner Posted February 7, 2018 Report Share Posted February 7, 2018 Eight years and 4 months. must surrender immediately. cannot remain out on bond during appeal. ouch. http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/federal-judge-sentences-a-former-east-coast-gun-dealer-to/article_f8949955-f941-5a28-9c9c-33bfbf4e2cf3.html What became of Michael Free? Has he reported yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsonlmg41 Posted February 12, 2018 Report Share Posted February 12, 2018 Last I heard Mike was in da clink for a while now. Don't know any more details than that. If I were an 02/07 guy with lots of posties I'd be concerned. Lots of similarities to Bill Fleming's situation......and others who have yet to be determined. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dalbert Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 Eight years and 4 months. must surrender immediately. cannot remain out on bond during appeal. ouch. http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/federal-judge-sentences-a-former-east-coast-gun-dealer-to/article_f8949955-f941-5a28-9c9c-33bfbf4e2cf3.html What became of Michael Free? Has he reported yet? He's been in for a while now... http://www.sturmgewehr.com/dalbert/MGBoards/Michael%20Free%20Prisoner%20Info.png David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLansky Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 Michael received a 2 year sentence to be followed by 3 years supervised probation. upon his release, he will then be tried on state charges related to the resumption of his lighting business. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoscoeTurner Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 Eight years and 4 months. must surrender immediately. cannot remain out on bond during appeal. ouch. http://www.nwitimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/federal-judge-sentences-a-former-east-coast-gun-dealer-to/article_f8949955-f941-5a28-9c9c-33bfbf4e2cf3.html What became of Michael Free? Has he reported yet? He's been in for a while now... http://www.sturmgewehr.com/dalbert/MGBoards/Michael%20Free%20Prisoner%20Info.png David Thanks, didn't see him at the October Knob Creek and was curious about his status. He had been showing up regularly after his trial. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RoscoeTurner Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 Michael received a 2 year sentence to be followed by 3 years supervised probation. upon his release, he will then be tried on state charges related to the resumption of his lighting business. Thanks. It would appear his future is well planned out for him at this point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthur Fliegenheimer Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 (edited) He blamed the customers! I repaired some of these guns because one of the buyers were already my customers. At one point he did have one "rare" MG listed for sale, which was offered for a very long time with an extended description and supporting affidavits. It was a German Maxim MG08/18, the air-cooled version of the watercooled MG08/15. Few were made.He claimed in his ad that it had been confirmed as an authentic gun by Bill Vallerand, a longtime friend of mine now deceased, who was extremely knowledgeable about vintage MGs. If Bill had seen the gun he would have pointed out that it was a copy built from an 08/15. This was easily determined from the pics. Also, unknown to Vahan, the self proclaimed well informed MG expert, there are no registered examples or examples at all, of any 08/18s in the US. I recall that Stan Andrewski's name was also invoked as supporting the premise that the gun was authentic. Stan is also a longtime acquaintance of mine, and I don't know if he actually believed the gun was an authentic 08/18 or not. It was a fake, but was never revealed in the ad as such. If Vahan could have transformed a Maxim 1908-15 into a Maxim 08-18 smg (see pic) that would have been a feat. But it does not stretch credulity to believe other unscrupulous dealers might have also altered and then misrepresented a shoulder stock/bipod water-cooled 1908-15 as an air cooled MG 08/18 light machine gun. Curtis Earl sold a Maxim MG 08/15 "light" machine gun to Doug Champlin who in turn sold sold it in 2000(?). When did Vahan advertise this - too good to be true - air-cooled version? Edited February 13, 2018 by Arthur Fliegenheimer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geefal Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 so pardon a stupid question, but in a deal like this, what happens to all those nice transferable weapons. please don't tell me they get destroyed. Sorry if this is the stupid question of the day, I just honestly don't know Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
83Baron Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 His wife runs the show I believe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Petroleum 1 Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 His wife runs the show I believe. I dont think the sot license is in her name though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black River Militaria CII Posted February 13, 2018 Report Share Posted February 13, 2018 (edited) Vahans business partners are now licensed and are running the business. No doubt they agree with his lawyer that he is a fine, upstanding gentleman, a patriot and did nothing wrong to have such grevious injustic perpetrated upon him by ATF and the State of PA. They did leave a voluminous paper trail of wrong doing!Maybe those running his business will have learend a lesson here.Arthur:The pic on your post is not an MG08/18, which I assume you know. Vut for those who might not and who might care, that is a mysterious one-off Russian piece if I recall. The MG08/18 is simply an MG08/15 with a perforated small diameter shround for aircooling. Bad idea as the Maxim barrel is very thin walled for aircooled fround use so I suspect they were considering aricraft use vut the war ended. However, the receiver of an 08/15 is quite different at the front end, comfigured specifically for the jacket. It is easily seen as different than an 08/15.This gun was on his site for a couple of years four or more years ago with false claims of its provanance. Despite my efforts to get him to stop claiming that it was an 08/18 and falsely attributing that claim to knowledgeable people who did nto make the claim, he was oblivious. I hav enothing good to say about him but will refrain from any comments. FWIW Edited February 13, 2018 by Black River Militaria CII Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DLansky Posted February 14, 2018 Report Share Posted February 14, 2018 I had read that ATF denied renewals of the license for ASI. Perhaps the guns are now in a different name or not all of the licenses were non renewed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnsonlmg41 Posted February 14, 2018 Report Share Posted February 14, 2018 (edited) Geefal,the good news is rarely ever is a legit transferable ever destroyed in these situations. Fact is he and many of the other convicted felons I've heard of still own transferable guns.....they just can't posses them, so they sit often in limbo or are sold over time with arrangements made for transfer. I've bought a number of guns from felons over the years and none were fire sales. One guy even tried to scam me by selling me a post sample, taking the money and I waited months to find out the transfer was denied, then waited some more to get my money back. When I asked the ATF agent in charge of the disposition he laughed at me over the phone and told me "what did you expect when dealing with a multiple felon?" I wanted to ask what kind of jag are you when you took my form 4's on what you knew were post samples and submitted them and hung me out for months....but I held my tongue. Plenty of transferables are destroyed by relatives and atf when paperwork does not accompany the gun and no one puts forth the effort to investigate, that's how most are lost. HTH Interesting Bob that your opinion of Vahan is that he is the epic criminal for his actions of.........selling 416 uppers? Such a severe threat to public safety to garner an 8 year sentence? You don't seem to be too upset about the illegal 1986 ban and the perpetrators who illegally passed and enforce that? Clearly hating on the player and not the game? And as a purveyor of piles of post samples yourself.....seems a bit..... Edited February 14, 2018 by johnsonlmg41 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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