Aram Simonian Charged with Embezzlement of Over 34 Million AMD: Investigative Committee Provides Details

The former rector of Yerevan State University, Aram Simonian, has been charged with embezzling a particularly large amount of funds, totaling 34,362,581 AMD, from the university's foundation. This amount was transferred via bank transfer to the director of a security service company. The Investigative Committee of Armenia has announced this, adding that charges have been filed against him.

Here is the full statement from the Investigative Committee:

As a result of extensive investigative and other procedural actions in the criminal case under investigation by the main department for particularly important cases of the Investigative Committee, several circumstances of the misconduct carried out by the former rector of Yerevan State University have been revealed.

According to the data obtained during the investigation, Aram Simonian, while serving as the rector of the Yerevan State University Foundation in 2015, had the authority to manage the university's financial activities and to sign contracts up to fifty million drams or the equivalent amount in foreign currency. With the intent to commit embezzlement of particularly large amounts of entrusted property, he allegedly conspired with the director of a private security company providing security services in the university premises. Under the agreement signed on July 3, 2015, from that date until December 2019, Simonian is accused of embezzling the aforementioned amount from the financial resources of the Yerevan State University Foundation without the provision of services, through bank transfers to the said company’s director.

Based on the sufficient combination of evidence obtained, the former rector of Yerevan State University has been charged under Article 179, Part 3, Clause 1 of the RA Criminal Code (embezzlement or misappropriation). A signature not to leave has been chosen as a measure of restraint against him. The pre-trial investigation is ongoing.

It is noteworthy that Simonian held the position of rector of YSU for over ten years.