200 Thousand Dollars for the Consequences of Former Actions: 'Zhoghovurd'

‘Zhoghovurd’ daily reports that the Armenian government is preparing to allocate $262,500 to Baker & McKenzie LLP, which represents Armenia’s interests in the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes regarding the case of 'J. Barkovski and Rasia FZE vs. the Republic of Armenia.'

A contract worth a total of $750,000 was signed with this company on December 18, 2018. Subsequently, an agreement was reached during negotiations to set the fee for the services rendered in the first phase at $200,000 in equivalent AMD, and for the second phase, $550,000 in equivalent AMD.

‘Rasia FZE’ is an investment company registered in Dubai, whose American subsidiary has filed a claim against Armenia for $150 million at the ICSID concerning issues arising during the construction of the North-South, Iran-Armenia railway, which has significant economic and political importance, and for failures to meet contractual obligations.

The claim from 'Rasia FZE' and Joseph Barkovski was registered on August 3, 2018. This is the third case against Armenia at ICSID. The first was a claim from 'Global Gold Mining' LLC, an investor in the mining sector in 2007, against the former Minister of Environment and former MP Vardan Ayvazyan.

At that time, the international court ruled to recover $37 million from Vardan Ayvazyan in favor of 'Global Gold Mining' LLC, as per the court decision's materials, one of the subsidiaries of 'Global Gold Mining' was subjected to corrupt and improper demands by former Minister of Environment Vardan Ayvazyan.

The second case against Armenia is by Edmond Khudyan, a diaspora businessman and founder of 'Arin Capital', who claims $15 million from Armenia, alleging that during his operations in the country, businessman Vladislav Mangasaryan defrauded him, drove him into bankruptcy, with the support of officials, including Levon Sargsyan, the brother of former President Serzh Sargsyan, who is currently wanted. Together, they committed theft totaling more than $8.5 million. This case is currently under investigation.

Armenia is spending large sums on the investigation of these cases, mainly for paying lawyers.