First Criminal Case Initiated Following Integrity Check

It has already been reported that the Deputy Prosecutor General of Armenia sent a letter to the Police of Armenia on July 7, 2020, regarding the preparation of materials in accordance with Articles 180-181 of the Criminal Procedure Code. The letter aimed to clarify the possibility of document forgery presented by one of the applicants who participated in the announced open competition to supplement the list of candidates for prosecutors carrying out functions specified by the Law on the "Confiscation of Property of Illegal Origin" of the Prosecutor General's Office.

Specifically, among the documents attached to the application, the individual presented a certificate confirming their employment as a lawyer in a certain LLC from 2017-2019. The applicant was requested to provide additional documents regarding their work history, within which they provided information to the State Revenue Committee of Armenia regarding the submission of the corresponding document by the LLC.

However, according to the procedures established by the Law on the Prosecutor's Office, based on the conclusion of the Integrity Committee under the Prosecutor General, the qualification commission indicated that the employment information regarding the individual in question at that LLC had not been confirmed.

These circumstances raised reasonable doubts regarding the authenticity of the submitted documents, which led the Deputy Prosecutor General to forward them to the Police for the purpose of preparing procedural materials.

The General Department for Combating Corruption and Economic Crimes of the Armenian Police obtained factual data that the individual pressured the director of the LLC to create and provide a falsified official document, stating that they had been the lawyer of the company from May 1, 2017, to May 1, 2019. After obtaining the falsified certificate, the individual submitted it to the qualification commission under the Prosecutor General.

It was also revealed that the LLC had provided information about the individual's two-year work activity to the State Revenue Committee in violation of legislative requirements.

Considering that the prepared materials contain signs of crimes involving the forgery and use of official documents, as well as inciting to commit forgery of official documents, a criminal case has been initiated under the first part of Article 325 and Article 38-325 of the Criminal Code of Armenia. The criminal case has been forwarded to the Investigative Committee of Armenia for investigation.