Employee of 'Yerevan Travel' Steals 10 Million Drams and Disappears

A number of citizens from Armenia who were planning their honeymoon, vacation, or simply leisure time in Egypt are disappointed, angry, and feeling deceived. One citizen who used the Travelan tourism company alerted people on social media that they paid over half a million drams but discovered there were no hotels booked for them in Sharm El Sheikh, as reported by Panorama.am.

"On April 20, we purchased a vacation package from the Travelan tourist agency located at 18 Mashtots Street (Egypt, Sharm El Sheikh, May 21-30, for three people) and paid the full amount of 531,000 drams... We signed a contract and received a receipt in return," details the citizen.

"I made several calls to the head of Travelan, A. S., with whom I signed the contract, but in vain," the citizen elaborated.

Citizens gathered near the tourist agency's office shared their stories. For instance, a newlywed couple found out they couldn't leave at the airport, and another couple discovered upon arriving in Sharm El Sheikh that there was no room at their hotel.

The company responded to these and other complaints on its Facebook page.

"Dear colleagues, friends, users,
Our company has decided not to disclose any information regarding A. S., born on May 15, 1995, until the court's decision. However, the influx of calls in recent days, as well as new developments concerning deceived customers, compels us to clarify:
'ODAK' LLC is the Armenian representative of the Russian 'ODAK Group' company, which owns 'Yerevan Travel', the magazine 'Журнал АРМЕНИЯ ТУРИСТИЧЕСКАЯ', 'SONG TV Armenia', 'Torg.am', and several other companies.

In September 2018, we learned that since October 2017, Anna Nairi Sahakyan, who was registered as a tour manager at 'YEREVAN TRAVEL', was selling tourism services on behalf of the company without depositing any revenues into the company’s cash register.

Preliminary data indicates that the company has suffered damages exceeding 10,000,000 drams. We submitted a report regarding this to the Organized Crime Prevention Department of the Police of the Republic of Armenia in December 2018.

Currently, a criminal case has been initiated, and the investigation is ongoing. There is an opinion that the aforementioned individual is not acting alone; therefore, we ask all those who have been harmed not to seek revenge on behalf of Anna Nairi Sahakyan, who now operates under the name of TRAVEL AN Travelan, but to contact law enforcement authorities with relevant documents.

The police have not been responding to calls so far, and we remind that today is a non-working day. We found no such case in the judicial information system.

Notice: The suspect or accused in the alleged crime is considered innocent until proven guilty by a legally binding court verdict under the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia.