Armenian Tax Officials Arrested While Accepting Bribery

Employees of the Yerevan city department of the National Security Service of Armenia have revealed that during various and tactically coordinated operational-investigative measures conducted in the context of combating crime, the head of the Department of Investigation and Operational Intelligence of the State Revenue Committee, in collusion with two operatives from the same department, combined their efforts to officially perform tax administration and ensure the fulfillment of tax obligations.

According to the investigation, they exhibited blatant illegal inaction within the scope of their authority concerning tax legislation violations. They failed to record certain breaches and, in exchange for soliciting protection or tolerance in their service line, personally accepted a bribe amounting to 1,000,000 Armenian drams in a café in Yerevan on October 16, 2021.

Immediately following the act, both the officials and the briber were detained by the National Security Service. During a personal search, the entire amount of the bribe was found and confiscated from one of the operatives, wrapped in an envelope. Moreover, as a result of the operational-investigative measures, it was also revealed that one of the operatives had demanded and received bribes of various amounts from five business operators in Yerevan from March to September 2021. Additionally, in collaboration with another operative from his division, he accepted a substantial bribe of 200,000 Armenian drams from a representative of one of the businesses on September 22, 2021.

In the context of the criminal case initiated by the investigative department of the NSS regarding acts of bribery, four officials of the State Revenue Committee and three individuals who provided bribes were arrested on grounds of direct suspicion of committing crimes. Charges have been filed against them based on collected evidence during the pretrial investigation in accordance with the relevant articles of the Armenian Criminal Code.

On the same day, motions to apply detention as a measure of restraint were submitted to the court. All aspects of the corruption scheme, including the complete circle of involved individuals and the appropriate legal classifications for each act, are currently being addressed through necessary procedural actions and ongoing operational-investigative measures.

The National Security Service urges business entities to operate exclusively within the legal framework and to abstain from engaging in various forms of corruption that threaten the stability of the state's economic foundations, warning that such actions will meet with stringent responses.