Director of a Hotel Complex in Gegharkunik Illegally Detained and Subsequently Deprived of Assets by Owner

The Criminal Police Department's anti-corruption and economic crime investigation unit has gathered substantial evidence based on received information, indicating that the director of a hotel and restaurant complex in the Gegharkunik region, between December 2015 and July 2016, received a loan of 52 million drams from a bank belonging to the family of the hotel complex owner. According to the police, part of the money was used to ensure the normal operation of the complex, while the remaining 30 million drams were spent without the knowledge and consent of the owners to establish his own taxi service business, all while properly fulfilling the loan obligations.

As the investigation revealed, upon learning about the director's actions, the owner and his son organized, along with a group of persons, the illegal detention of the director from July 26 to August 18, 2016, against his will, keeping him in one of the cottages of the hotel complex and in various rooms of the same complex. During this period, they repeatedly beat him with sticks, fists, and feet.

Moreover, on July 26, 2016, the owner’s son took the director in his car to their private house located on Babajanyan Street in Yerevan, where his father, while insulting the director, demanded $120,000 from him, after which the director was taken back to the hotel complex area. The next day, the complex owner ordered that the director be brought to him, where he insulted him and hit him with a stun gun on the cheek, again demanding $120,000.

Furthermore, at the request of the director, his mother, sister, grandmother, friends, and girlfriend came to the hotel complex, during which they insisted on receiving $120,000 equivalent to 57 million 138 thousand drams from him and his family members. As a result, the director’s relatives transferred their home, vehicles of the family-owned taxi service, and money obtained from selling their gold jewelry under the names of those pointed out by them. Only after this did the director gain his freedom.

Thus, the hotel complex owner, his son, and their friends unlawfully deprived the complex director of his freedom for an extended period using violence, and later, stripped him of his assets. A criminal case has been initiated at the Criminal Police Department, which has been sent to the Investigative Committee. Charges have been brought against the hotel owner, his son, and four other individuals, with a wanted notice issued against the hotel owner and the four others, with detention as a preventive measure. The pre-trial investigation of the initiated criminal case continues.