Military Unit Commander Charged with Receiving Bribes

The Investigative Committee has charged a military unit commander with abuse of power, official forgery, and receiving large amounts of bribes. This was announced in a statement by the Public Relations and Information Department of the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia.

According to the report, factual data has been obtained in the criminal case under investigation by the 10th garrison investigative department of the Military Investigative Main Department of the Investigative Committee of Armenia, revealing that the commander of military unit N, holding official status and endowed with organizational and managerial powers, from April 2018 to March 2020, committed abuses of power. Acting in concert with the financial service head of the same military unit and the head of the communal services, via the financial branch chief of the 'Armenian Electric Networks' company’s Shirak Region ‘Garni’ branch, the actual owner of ‘Artyom Muradyan’ LLC, the owner of a store-teahouse operating in the military unit area, and the manager of the communal services, they unlawfully incorporated falsified data into mutual verification acts, which are official documents, for selfish reasons. They illegally sold part of the electricity allocated for the unit's needs at an average price of 9 AMD per kWh instead of the allocated 41 AMD, in accordance with a pre-arranged agreement with the head of the ‘Armenian Electric Networks’ company’s Shirak Region ‘Garni’ branch and the actual owner of ‘Artyom Muradyan’ LLC, causing serious material harm amounting to 25,625,000 AMD to the state.

Furthermore, from the beginning of 2019 until March 2020, the unit commander, in abuse of authority alongside the head of the financial service and the deputy chief of staff, maintained an established unlawful arrangement wherein, for selfish reasons, he incorporated obvious falsifications into official verification records, illegally transferring part of the natural gas allocated for the unit's needs for about 3,000,000 AMD at a rate of 23 AMD per m³ to employees A. and R. J. from the ‘Gazprom Armenia’ company’s Gyumri branch, which also resulted in serious material damage to the state amounting to 16,304,347 AMD.

It has also been revealed that in February-March 2019, learning via the head of the financial service that the senior accountant wanted his wife to be appointed as the head of the unit's club, the commander demanded and received a bribe equivalent to 1,000 USD (485,860 AMD) through the head of the financial service for this appointment. Subsequently, the wife of the senior accountant in the financial service was appointed as the head of the unit’s club.

The investigation is ongoing.

Note: The suspect or accused in the alleged crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a court ruling in accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia.