Offshore Bank Documents Reveal Transactions of 'Golden Palace' Owners; NSS Closes Criminal Case Against Hotel

The former head of the Customs State Committee, Armen Avetisyan, who is facing charges for money laundering and illegal participation in entrepreneurial activities, has utilized offshore bank accounts for his hotel business. This is substantiated by documents leaked from the Cayman National Bank, which have come into the possession of Hetq. Notably interesting are the transfers made through these accounts and the history of their closure. We have also established that the NSS was unaware of Avetisyan’s funds held in the Cayman bank.

According to Hetq, last autumn, a hacker operating under the name Phineas Fisher (HackBack) disclosed over 2 terabytes of banking information online. The Cayman National Corporation announced that there was a leak from two of its companies based in the Isle of Man: “Cayman National Bank (Isle of Man) Limited” and “Cayman National Trust Company (Isle of Man) Limited.” Now, information on 1,400 customers from 3,800 accounts has become available.

Hetq, in collaboration with its partner OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project), has examined the leaked documents related to former head of customs Armen Avetisyan and made significant revelations.

After the first cases of coronavirus infection were registered in Armenia on March 1, the infected citizen and individuals in contact with them were quarantined. Not long after, it became known that the Golden Palace Hotel in Tsaghkadzor was designated for quarantine (the emergency service indicated that it is currently empty). The news that Armenia, known for not being a wealthy country, turned a five-star hotel into a quarantine zone spread rapidly across the internet, including foreign-language websites.

It is unlikely that the government could afford such luxury if the hotel belonged to a private entity, which would probably demand a massive fee for services. Opened in March 2013, the Golden Palace has been state-owned since September 2019, and efforts are currently being made to auction it off. Before that, the complex belonged to the family of former Customs State Committee head Armen Avetisyan (2001-2008).

It is worth recalling that Avetisyan emerged at the center of a criminal case due to his involvement in the hotel business. For more details, refer to the original source.