Video: Former Director of Metro Exposed for Misconduct

The Criminal Police Department's anti-corruption and economic crimes unit has prepared materials and gathered factual data about the misconduct of the former director of the "Karen Demirchyan Yerevan Metro" LLC based on the results of investigations conducted by the State Control Service and working groups from the Yerevan City Hall.

According to preliminary information, in 2017, he signed a contract worth 696,000 euros for the "Renovation and Modernization of Metro Cars." Under this agreement, a branch of a Russian registered company in Armenia finished renovations on bi-head and intermediate cars, and with the intent to commit fraud, he misused his official position by exceeding the basic unit defined by the Armenian procurement law and signed a similar contract for the renovation and modernization of the same intermediate cars in April 2018 without announcing a competition, along with an authorized person of the same company's Armenian branch related to his son.

Subsequently, in August 2018, he unilaterally approved the handover-acceptance act concerning the contractual works. In the documents, he included false information claiming that the services were fully completed and subsequently presented falsified documents for payment, embezzling 624,000 euros through misappropriation methods with the assistance of this company.

Additionally, the former director reportedly failed to adequately fulfill his official duties during the competition for cleaning services in the company's territories between 2016-2019. By providing approximate data on the actual cleaned area of 55,773 square meters, he signed a contract with a cleaning services company for 88,496 square meters, which was 32,723 square meters more than the cleaned area, causing material damage of about 92,683,000 drams to the company's legal interests and resulting in serious consequences due to negligence.

Moreover, preliminary data suggests that from 2017-2019, the former director, abusing his official powers based on personal interests, conducted single purchases under the names of his relatives from various economic operators operating both in Armenia and abroad, totaling 734,741,890 drams, violating the requirements of the Armenian procurement law and its regulatory organization without justifying urgency and objective unpredictability, thus causing significant harm to the company’s legal interests.

A criminal case has been initiated under several articles of the RA Criminal Code at the Criminal Police Department.