‘Spayka’ Caused Over 7 Billion Dram Damage to the State, Says SSC

The SSC investigation department has uncovered a case of large-scale tax evasion as a result of urgent operational and investigative measures undertaken to identify corruption-related crimes.

According to the SSC press service, the management of the SP company imported various products, including cheese, pears, apples, Chinese cabbage, tomatoes, and others, to the Republic of Armenia from various European countries that are not members of the EAEU, including Poland and Belgium, through the SP company during the years 2014-2015. These products were actually imported into Armenia through Georgia during the period from January 1, 2015, to January 11, 2016. When exporting the mentioned products from Georgia’s customs border to Armenia, documents containing the real names, weight, value, country of origin, supplier, buyer, and other actual data were submitted to the Georgian customs authorities; however, when importing these products into Armenia, false documents were presented to the Armenian customs authorities, claiming that the imported products were exclusively from the tariff-free and value-added tax exempt product group, with a company managed by the SP company acting as the importer.

As a result, products actually imported from various organizations abroad were cleared in Armenia under other product names that are exempt from customs duties and VAT calculations and payments. Based on the expert's conclusion, it was established that only during the period from January 1, 2015, to January 11, 2016, using the aforementioned shadow methods, the SP company did not declare the actual information regarding the goods imported into Armenia in compliance with legal procedures and deadlines. This means that the corresponding customs declarations were not submitted, and instead, false information was provided to the customs authorities in the name of the SP company, which served as the basis for calculating taxes, duties, and other mandatory payments, with the direct intent to avoid paying these obligations, resulting in a loss of 7,036,666,312 AMD in customs duties and taxes to the state budget due to the entrepreneurial activities carried out by the SP company. Investigative and procedural actions are ongoing to clarify the damage caused to the state for the remaining months of 2016, as well as for the years 2017 and 2018.

For committing the aforementioned socially dangerous act, a charge was filed against Davit Venger Ghazaryan under the second part of Article 205 of the RA Criminal Code on April 4, 2019.

Davit Venger Ghazaryan has not been arrested; instead, on April 4, 2019, an application was submitted by the SSC investigator to the First Instance Court of General Jurisdiction of Yerevan to choose detention as a preventive measure against Davit Venger Ghazaryan. The discussion of the application is scheduled for April 5, 2019.

The preliminary investigation of the criminal case is ongoing, and necessary operational, investigative, and procedural measures are being taken to individualize the actions of each person involved in the aforementioned criminal activity, as well as to clarify the final amount of damage caused to the state.