Who Enriched Themselves With 23,553,817,000 AMD During the Construction of the North-South Highway?

The French company 'Safege S.A. and Epitsa' was contracted by the Armenian government to conduct technical supervision of the construction under the 'North-South Road Corridor' investment program. However, it has been revealed that they took the money without performing any work.

The head of the company's project has been charged with embezzling more than $1.8 million equivalent in Armenian drams through fraud, as part of a criminal case being investigated by the Special Investigation Service of the Republic of Armenia.

According to a statement from the investigative committee, the head of the French 'Safege S.A. and Epitsa' joint venture project team assumed these obligations starting from December 2015.

Preliminary investigative data show that in agreement with employees of the contractor company executing the work, as well as with authorized individuals from the Ministry of Transport, Communication, and Information Technologies, he issued and submitted a fraudulent payment certificate on September 1, 2016, asserting that all work on Tranche-1 had been completed. This certificate included the value of work that had not actually been performed, amounting to 1,804,232 USD or 871,083,253 AMD.

For this act, he has been charged with embezzlement of particularly large amounts by fraud, under the first point of part 3 of Article 178 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. An undertaking not to leave has been chosen as a measure of restraint against him.

The preliminary investigation is ongoing. The investigative body reminds that the total damage caused to the state within the framework of the 'North-South Road Corridor' program amounts to 23,553,817,000 AMD.