Deputy Minister's Directive Hinders Diesel Fuel Imports; Case in Court

The criminal case regarding the obstruction of customs clearance for another batch of diesel fuel transferred to the Republic of Armenia has been sent to the court. It has been revealed that the former Deputy Minister of Finance instructed the deputy head of the Bagratashen customs post to process diesel fuel clearances only with his permission.

In carrying out the Deputy Minister's illegal directive, the deputy head prevented the clearance of diesel fuel batches and instructed the trucks loaded with diesel fuel to be transferred to a warehouse, leaving them there for several months. Eventually, the goods were returned, and subsequently, with the intervention of the company, they crossed the Armenian-Georgian border again.

For the compulsory downtime, the importing company had compensated the drivers with 1,200,000 Russian rubles, indicating substantial financial damage.

This information was reported by the Prosecutor General's office, which noted that the Deputy Minister has been involved as a suspect, and in another criminal case against him, detention has already been chosen as a measure of restraint, and he has been declared wanted.

In relation to applications received from diesel fuel importers in 2019 by the RA Police's Central Department for Combating Organized Crime, it has been substantiated during the pre-trial investigation of a criminal case initiated under Part 1 of Article 308 of the RA Criminal Code that a group of officials in Armenia deliberately obstructed customs clearance for another batch of diesel fuel transferred by the company to Armenia in 2015.

In particular, it has been established during the investigation that former Deputy Minister of Finance A. A. illegally instructed S. M., the deputy head of the Bagratashen customs post working under his authority, in November 2015 not to carry out customs clearances for diesel fuel imported through the Bagratashen customs post without his permission. In execution of this illegal order, he in turn instructed the heads of the clearance departments at the Bagratashen customs post to report to him in cases of diesel fuel import and not to carry out customs clearance without his permission.

On November 7, 2015, the company K... I... acquired 500 tons of diesel fuel in Volgograd, Russia, part of which—181.6 tons—was transferred to Armenia by November 26, 2015, obtained customs clearance at the same customs post, and delivered to Teghut LLC. The other part was transported to Armenia in two batches in December 2015.