Charges Filed Against Vova Gasparyan, Levon Yeranosyan, and Two Others

The Special Investigative Service of Armenia has announced that during the preliminary investigation of a multi-part criminal case, instances of abuse of power, official forgery, and embezzlement of substantial state assets by former high-ranking officials of the Armenian police, including Vladimir Gasparyan and Levon Yeranosyan, have been uncovered. As a result, the state has suffered damages amounting to approximately 114 million AMD.

Charges have been brought against Gasparyan, Yeranosyan, and two other individuals, and the preliminary investigation concerning them has been completed. The case has been forwarded to the supervising prosecutor for approval and subsequent submission to the court.

According to the criminal case, it was determined that between 1997 and 2011, Vladimir Gasparyan, who held the positions of Chief of the Military Police Department and Deputy Minister of Defense of Armenia, committed serious misconduct. Specifically, he allowed three servicemen of the Ministry of Defense to engage in duties unrelated to their status. Instead of serving in the military unit, they effectively worked as drivers and bodyguards for the brothers Lyova and Alexander Sargsyan, who are relatives of Armenia's third president, Serge Sargsyan, while receiving a total salary of 54,790,433 AMD from the Ministry of Defense, 21,691,481 AMD of which was during Gasparyan's tenure.

Additionally, from 2011 to 2018, while serving as the Chief of Police of the Republic of Armenia, Gasparyan misused his official position to illegally allocate properties valued at 15,000,000 AMD and 10,000,000 AMD to high-ranking officials of the police who were not in need of housing improvement. These include Major General R. Zakaryan, Head of the Counter-Terrorism Department, and G. Gasparyan, Deputy Head of the Patrol Police Department.

Moreover, Gasparyan unlawfully allocated another property worth 10,000,000 AMD to an employee of the police cultural center, who was registered with the police for only six days but never reported for duty, while instead providing producer services for Gasparyan's daughter.

During the investigation, it was established that in 2015, Gasparyan's daughter assumed the role of Senior Officer of the Operational Division of the Police Commands. However, she never reported for service or fulfilled her duties. Levon Yeranosyan, who served as the Deputy Chief of Police at that time, failed to take preventive measures and wasted public resources by approving the monthly funding requests for the police troops, based on which Gasparyan's daughter was effectively paid 8,838,362 AMD between 2015 and 2018.

Additionally, under Yeranosyan's orders, a formal process to assign Gasparyan's daughter to a high-ranking position for just three days was organized via the creation of entirely fictitious documents, resulting in her being awarded the rank of lieutenant colonel.

The investigation further revealed that Vardan Tunyana, who held the position of Head of the Internal Audit Department of the Police, persuaded Yeranosyan to exempt his acquaintance, who had been accepted into the police forces, from carrying out official duties. Complying with Tunyana's request due to personal interests, Yeranosyan abused his official powers, instructing Gurgen Grigoryan, the commander of the police unit under his direct supervision, to relieve this individual of his responsibilities. In return, the individual served as Tunyana's driver and received a total salary amounting to 7,954,103 AMD for the aforementioned period, causing substantial damage to the state.

Moreover, Tunyana misused his official position to instruct another police employee to transport family members to various locations instead of performing his core duties, resulting in an unjustified payment of 3,750,960 AMD in salaries from 2016 to 2018.

During the investigation, it also emerged that during his tenure as police chief, Gasparyan's wife had been appointed as a senior reference officer at the police chief’s office, but due to unexcused reasons, she improperly performed her work obligations and failed to report to work for extended periods, receiving a salary exceeding 19 million AMD. She was also granted the ranks of police lieutenant colonel and later colonel.

The investigation into these and other alleged criminal activities is ongoing.