Scheme of Embezzlement by Police Officials in Operation; Case Sent to Court

The investigation of a criminal case initiated on October 15, 2018, regarding the embezzlement of funds in particularly large amounts by police officials using their official position has concluded, based on the findings of an internal audit conducted by the internal audit department of the Armenian Police and submitted to the Special Investigative Service of Armenia.

The Prosecutor's Office reports that sufficient evidence has been gathered to establish that G.H. and A.A., the former head of the Ararat Division of the Police State Protection Service (PSPS) and the head of the Artashat subdivision of the same division, respectively, conspired with the accountant P.G. to develop and implement an embezzlement scheme for funds intended for the state budget during the years 2015-2017.

This scheme involved not paying or insufficiently paying the income taxes on the salaries and bonuses of the division's employees into the state budget. Each month, these funds, as well as bonuses owed to department personnel in certain instances, were transferred by the accountant P.G. to the bank accounts of himself, the division heads, and several other employees based on instructions from G.H., up until October 2016, after which A.A. assumed that position.

Subsequently, these individuals were required to return the excess amounts deposited into their accounts each month. Then, following the directives from the division heads, P.G. would turn over the total amount he had collected from various sources to them. As a result, during the specified period, a total of 11.5 million AMD was allegedly embezzled by G.H. with the support of the accountant, while A.A. was involved in the embezzlement of about 13 million AMD.

Additionally, it was revealed that during the period from March to October 2016, while holding the position of head of the Ararat Division of the PSPS, G.H., lacking the authority to allocate monetary assistance to division employees, disbursed a total of 2.7 million AMD as financial assistance based on the reports of 41 officers regarding various personal issues, thereby causing apparent misappropriation.

On February 11, 2020, A.A. was charged under part 3, clause 1 of Article 179 of the RA Criminal Code. He fully admitted his guilt and returned around 13 million AMD attributed to him. On April 7, 2020, under the direction of the prosecuting attorney, G.H. and P.G. were also charged as defendants. G.H. faced charges under part 3, clause 1 of Article 179 and part 2, clauses 1 and 3 of Article 179. During the investigation, he returned 360,000 AMD of the damages caused. P.G. was charged under Article 38-179, part 3, clause 1 (on two counts) and fully admitted his guilt, providing confessional statements.

Restrictions were placed on the defendants' property to secure the damages and court expenses. On May 12, 2020, the prosecuting attorney overseeing the legality of the investigation confirmed the accusatory conclusion against three individuals, and the criminal case was sent to the court of first instance of general jurisdiction in the Ararat region.