Urgent: Details Revealed About the Case Leading to the Arrest of the Deputy Chief of Traffic Police

The Deputy Chief of the Traffic Police, Arthur Tonoyan, has recently been charged by the Special Investigative Service, with remand in custody as the chosen preventive measure.

In a statement released by the Special Investigative Service, no specific details were provided regarding the timeframe of the alleged actions of Arthur Tonoyan or the private company that benefited from these actions. However, it was mentioned that, through coordinated actions, Tonoyan restricted competition between private companies that had the ability to supply registration plates to the police of the Republic of Armenia.

As a result, other officials are also implicated in the case. Tert.am has learned that the contracts in question involve the company “Bill Stone,” which the Anti-Corruption Committee had previously reported on. The Police of Armenia did not enter into any agreements with this company in 2018, whereas former Police Chief Valery Osipyan signed a contract worth approximately 848 million drams during his tenure for works related to the printing of vehicle registration plates, driver’s licenses, and vehicle registration certificates.

Additionally, the police signed contracts with “Bill Stone” on August 23, 2019, for 78 million 840 thousand drams; on September 6, for 341 million 640 thousand drams; on August 23, for 315 million 587 thousand drams; on August 16, for 13 million 800 thousand drams; and on October 1, for 98 million 478 thousand drams. Apart from the contracts signed in 2019, the police signed only one contract with the mentioned company in 2017, amounting to 415 million drams.

According to the charges, Arthur Tonoyan is accused of establishing a monopoly for this company in the market. Reports suggest that Deputy Chief of Police Vardan Movsisyan has also been interrogated within the framework of the case under investigation by the Special Investigative Service, and he will soon face charges.

Included in the list of “involved persons” is former Deputy Chief of Police Anubagh Hambaryan.

It is noteworthy that Arthur Tonoyan has been charged under Article 195, Part 2, Point 3 and Article 308, Part 1 of the RA Criminal Code for committing criminal acts that involve abuse of official powers, through coordinated actions, limited competition between private companies capable of supplying registration plates to the police, and performed targeted actions to obstruct one company's entry into the RA market, thereby ensuring the monopoly of the second company in the RA market and facilitating the maintenance of discriminatory prices set by it, causing significant damage to the legitimate interests of the state.