Director of Company Building Apartment Complexes and His Acquaintance Charged with Fraud

The Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia has revealed several circumstances in the criminal case being investigated by the Yerevan Investigative Division of the Ajapnyak and Davtashen Administrative Districts regarding serious fraud committed by the director of a company involved in the construction of apartment buildings and his acquaintance.

According to the data obtained during the investigation, the director of the aforementioned company, who began the construction of apartment buildings on Fuchik Street in Yerevan in 2011, made an arrangement with the director of a company specializing in the production and installation of European windows for the installation of windows with a total area of 250-270 square meters. He had met this director through his acquaintance, a 34-year-old resident of Yerevan, who is also a close friend of the director's son.

As a result of the arrangement, the employees of the company installed windows worth a total of $25,000; however, the director of the construction company, unable to pay in cash for the services rendered, ceased construction work in April 2016. Together with his 34-year-old acquaintance, he arranged to defraud the director of the window company of a particularly large sum of money and to formalize an apartment subject to sale in the name of the 34-year-old man in exchange for an additional payment of $20,000. This involved providing him with an apartment located in one of the semi-finished buildings on Fuchik Street, valued at $45,000, equivalent to 21,687,300 AMD.

In accordance with the terms of the agreement, on April 5, 2016, a preliminary purchase and sale agreement was signed between the director of the construction company and the wife of the window company’s director, immediately after which the construction company director received $20,000 in cash from the window company’s director, equivalent to 9,638,800 AMD, promising to provide a certificate of ownership by May 31 of the same year.

Continuing their criminal intent, from April 2016 to May 2018, under various pretexts, they delayed the issuance of the property title certificate. Under the pretext of carrying out interior finishing work, the construction company director and his acquaintance demanded and received an additional $12,000 from the director of the window company in parts. Subsequently, under the guise of personally handling the privatization of the apartment, the 34-year-old man took the original purchase contract, depriving the director of the window company and his wife of the opportunity to acquire the apartment, which was sold at a price significantly below the market value—4,443,410 AMD—on October 9, 2019, causing significant property damage to the couple.

Based on the combination of sufficient evidence, the director of the company building apartment complexes and his 34-year-old acquaintance have been charged under the first part of Article 178 (Fraud) of the RA Criminal Code. A restraining measure of a non-leaving signature has been chosen for them. The pre-trial investigation continues.

Note: The suspect or accused is considered innocent until proven guilty in accordance with the procedure established by the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia, by a legally binding court verdict.