It is Revealed Which Object Mikhail Minasian Acquired at 4 Times Cheaper

During a press conference held today, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan addressed questions regarding the legal evaluation of illegal actions by Mikhail Minasian and Serzh Sargsyan. He stated, "There have been statements about Serzh Sargsyan and Mikhail Minasian, and I link these statements to the fact that Mikhail Minasian has received information that relates to certain criminal cases, which have now reached him, and there is a very high probability that he will be presented as a defendant, specifically in the case of the privatization of one of Armenia's strategic objects. I assume that he will testify against Serzh Sargsyan, resulting in Serzh Sargsyan's arrest, and they have decided to declare in advance that he and Serzh Sargsyan are political persecuted. 

"A strategic object has been privatized, and we have been searching for its legal grounds in the government for 2-3 months, but we cannot find them. The matter concerns a very important object located in the Lori Province, regarding which a case has been initiated.” However, Pashinyan did not specify which object he was referring to.

It turns out that the object in question is the property of “Dzora HPP” LLC. According to armdaily.am, in May, the Prosecutor General’s Office released a statement regarding this object, indicating that it was sold at four times a lower price, and a criminal case has been initiated. The Prosecutor's Office's statement specifically noted, "Based on the studies and the materials prepared, it has been established that, according to the relevant decision of the Government in May 2001, the property management rights of shares of 'Dzora HPP' LLC, which was created with a charter capital of 2 billion 1 million 840 thousand drams, were transferred to the Ministry of Defense in January 2002 by a decision of the Government. According to the received data, ‘Dzora HPP’ LLC operated profitably from 2006 to 2010, delivering approximately 251 million kWh of electricity, of which 1 billion 252 million drams of profit was transferred to the Ministry of Defense from net profits.

"With the apparent intent of creating justifications for selling a company operating without profit at a value lower than its market price, the tariff for the electricity unit released by 'Dzora HPP' LLC was reviewed by the Public Services Regulatory Commission’s decision dated February 27, 2009, lowering the tariff from 13.92 drams without VAT to a clearly cheaper rate of 2.745 drams starting April 1, 2009. This happened at a time when the unit cost of electricity was 4.383 drams. Thus, for about a year, the company was deprived of the opportunity to generate profit," the Prosecutor's announcement stated.

"Later, immediately after the sale of the shares of ‘Dzora HPP’ LLC, on January 20, 2011, the Public Services Regulatory Commission set the tariff to 10.5 drams without VAT, and from January 2012 to 19.551 drams. Subsequently, the project for this decision was presented to the Government without an independent appraisal of the real estate, as required by the Government’s decision dated March 27, 1998, by officials whose involvement in the materials is not clarified. Based on this, the Government decided on December 16, 2010, to allow the Ministry of Defense to sell the state property of 'Dzora HPP' LLC for the value of 3 billion 600 million drams, to the just two-month operational 'Dzoraget Hydro' LLC."

However, the Prosecutor's Office continues, it has been established that 'Dzoraget Hydro' delivered approximately 700 million kWh of electricity from 2011 to 2018, which generated a revenue of around 14 billion drams in total. The volumes of electricity delivered by 'Dzora HPP' and 'Dzoraget Hydro' from 2003 to 2018 were comparable each year and did not undergo significant changes. Thus, according to information received from the State Property Management Department, the market value of 'Dzora HPP' LLC's property would amount to approximately 8 billion drams by the end of 2010 and approximately 12 billion drams by the end of 2018. "

"Therefore, it has been established that the highly profitable property of 'Dzora HPP' LLC, which had a value of about 8 billion drams as of 2010 and approximately 12 billion drams as of 2018, was sold for only 3 billion 600 million drams, causing significant harm to the legal interests of the state with serious consequences," the announcement states. Considering that the prepared materials contain data indicating criminal acts by a number of leading employees and officials of the executive bodies, driven by self-serving, personal, and group interests, abusing their official positions contrary to the public interest and thereby causing substantial harm to the legal interests of the state, a criminal case has been initiated under Part 2 of Article 308 of the Criminal Code, for "abuse of official authority, which has negligently caused serious consequences." The preliminary investigation of the criminal case has been entrusted to the Special Investigation Service.