On the surface, David Ray was the perfect family man.
A married grandfather and Mormon from the small California town of Ione, he had spent 38 years working for the same trucking company.
But by 2019, Ray, then 62, was living a double life online.
His lawyer, Brian Getz, said he had a pornography addiction and ‘a rich imaginary life’ that led him to ‘sugar daddy’ websites and a 26-year-old brunette on the other side of the country.
Aryanah Davison lived in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. According to Getz, she quickly worked out what Ray wanted and gave it to him: pictures ‘of a pornographic nature.’
Ray became so besotted that he took out lines of credit and bought her a luxury SUV.
But when Ray’s money began running out, the relationship took a far more sinister turn. He handed over the personal details of hundreds of colleagues, helping Davison and her boyfriend steal millions from taxpayers.
Now the extraordinary scheme has left all three facing the consequences, with one fraudster already serving a decade behind bars.
Aryanah Davison, 26, was described as ‘young, pretty, flexible, and good at posing’
She bewitched California trucker David Ray, 68, seen here with his wife Cindy and two of their grandchildren
Getz told the Daily Mail that Davison had quickly identified his client’s appetite for pornography and used it to draw him deeper into their online relationship.
‘She found out that he liked pornography and had a rich imaginary life,’ Getz said.
‘She sent him pictures of a pornographic nature, which were consistent with his addiction.’
Getz described Davison as ‘young, pretty, flexible, and good at posing,’ saying she had zeroed in on Ray’s ‘base instincts’.
The pair exchanged messages over several months after meeting online in 2019.
At one point, Davison traveled across the country to meet him in person. But despite the suggestive photographs and promises of a closer relationship, there was no sexual contact, said Getz.
‘At the meeting, it was just a discussion. They did not have any contact of a sexual nature,’ he said.
Ray was left believing their relationship might eventually become something more.
Getz said he was ‘succumbing to her entreaties and her promise of closer relationship later, which of course never was consummated.’
The married grandfather became increasingly indebted as he tried to keep Davison interested.
In one social media post from 2020, Davison appeared to show off a $56,000 First Edition Range Rover that Ray had bought for her.
But prosecutors said another man was directing the operation from behind the scenes.
Davison’s boyfriend, Ardavan Alamoutinia, 36, of Hummelstown, Pennsylvania, had encouraged her to create the online profile and seek out potential victims, said prosecutors.
The Daily Mail has obtained photographs of Davison, Alamoutinia and Ray, offering a glimpse of the people behind the remarkable fraud.
Ray wired money and even bought Davison a luxury SUV to keep the pornographic photos coming
Behind the scenes was Davison’s boyfriend, Ardavan Alamoutinia, 36, who has already been sentenced to a decade behind bars
The couple lived together in a brick-and-clapboard house in Hummelstown, a historic community in Dauphin County. Their social media posts showed them enjoying expensive vehicles and traveling the country.
Davison also appeared to flaunt the rewards of the relationship online, while Alamoutinia was allegedly helping turn Ray’s personal obsession into a multimillion-dollar criminal enterprise.
As Ray’s debts mounted, he agreed to provide the couple with personal information belonging to 375 current and former colleagues at his California trucking company, it was alleged.
According to court records, Davison directed him to obtain identifying documents from employee personnel files and send them to her.
Ray was allegedly cautious because the records were not kept centrally and he had to request information from coworkers.
‘He ran out of money, but wanted to keep cultivating his efforts with this woman that he was fantasizing about,’ Getz said.
The information became the raw material for a nationwide benefits scam, prosecutors said.
Davison and Alamoutinia used the identities to submit more than 500 fraudulent applications for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program created to support livelihoods disrupted by COVID-19, according to the indictment.
The applications were filed across 27 states, with each falsely claiming that the named individual had lost work because of the pandemic.
The people whose identities were used had not applied for the benefits and knew nothing about the claims, according to the indictment.
State agencies issued money through direct deposits, checks and prepaid debit cards. Davison and Alamoutinia allegedly collected the payments, withdrew cash, moved funds between accounts and spent the proceeds.
The government calculated its loss at at least $2,886,876. Prosecutors said the pair converted at least $2.5 million of the fraudulent proceeds, including hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on cryptocurrency.
The money also allegedly helped finance luxury purchases, including a high-performance 2021 Audi RS7, according to court files reviewed by the Daily Mail.
The operation ran from March 2020 until November 2022, before investigators closed in. A federal grand jury indicted Davison and Alamoutinia in May 2023.
Both eventually pleaded guilty to their roles in the scheme. Alamoutinia was sentenced in September to 120 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release.
Davison in 2020 appeared to post about the a $56,000 First Edition Range Rover that Ray had bought for her
Davison is set to be sentenced in January over the multimillion dollar COVID benefits fraud
He was also ordered to repay $3,177,376 in restitution by US District Judge Juan R. Sánchez.
His guilty plea covered conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud, ten counts of mail fraud, theft of government money and aggravated identity theft.
Davison pleaded guilty in January 2025 and is set to be sentenced in January. Details of her plea were not available.
Prosecutors previously said she faced a maximum possible sentence of 232 years, although that is a statutory maximum rather than a prediction of the punishment she will receive.
Ray, now 68, was also prosecuted for his part in the scheme. He pleaded guilty in 2023 to wire fraud, mail fraud and identity theft, acknowledging that he had supplied the information used to target his coworkers.
At his sentencing in Philadelphia on November 4, Ray told the judge he had failed to control his impulses while communicating with Davison.
‘I allowed myself to be corrupted,’ he said.
Prosecutors acknowledged that Ray had been manipulated, but insisted he was not simply an innocent victim.
He knew the information belonged to his colleagues and received more than $144,000 from the operation, according to their sentencing submission.
‘When life got tough, David Ray sold out his co-workers and friends – and earned over $144,000 doing it,’ prosecutors wrote. ‘The defendant knew better.’
Ray’s lawyer said his client had since tried to rebuild his life, relying on therapy, his family and his Christian faith.
‘He’s trying to control his base instincts and is doing a very good job of it,’ Getz said.
‘He doesn’t look at any pornography. He still has therapy once a week. He still reads scriptures every night.’
Lawyer David Getz described Davison and Alamoutinia as ‘equal partners’ in the massive fraud
At one point, Davison even travelled over to California to meet Ray in person
Ray’s wife, Cindy, was in court as her husband received a one-year prison sentence.
He has yet to be assigned to a detention facility, has a new trucking job, and is living in the couple’s $400,000 bungalow.
The case unfolded against the backdrop of one of the biggest benefits fraud scandals in American history.
The Government Accountability Office estimated that between $100 billion and $135 billion in unemployment insurance payments during the pandemic were fraudulent.
That estimate covered programs nationwide between April 2020 and May 2023, and represented between 11 and 15 percent of the benefits paid.
The Pennsylvania case was a particularly brazen example of how criminals exploited the emergency system, using stolen identities and the trust of a vulnerable insider to reach hundreds of thousands of dollars in benefits.
The Daily Mail contacted Davison and Alamoutinia, along with their lawyers and relatives, for comment.
