Charges Filed Against Former Mayor of Vardenis Community

The former mayor of the Vardenis community, who served as the head of the Vardenis Territorial Agency for Social Support of the Gegharkunik Regional Administration from March 2004 to November 2017, has been accused of several abuses. This information has been provided by the Investigative Committee of the Republic of Armenia.

As a result of investigative and procedural actions undertaken during the preliminary investigation, it has been revealed that the official, aiming to use obviously false data, organized fraudulent activities to embezzle state budget funds with a unified intent, specifically targeting the cash benefits provided by the state to underprivileged families. He developed a coordinated plan involving two other employees of the same agency.

According to the investigation, in 2013, to carry out his criminal intent, he entered the biographical data of about 250 individuals who were not beneficiaries of social support into the computer database of the Vardenis Territorial Agency for Social Support under the pretense that they were entitled to social benefits. He also planned to embezzle significant amounts of money, with the help of employees from the “Haypost” company, based on these falsified entries.

Having reached a preliminary illicit agreement with these individuals, he organized and led the criminal actions of the agency's employees under his command. Working separately but with a collective criminal intent, the employees entered blatantly false information into the computer database regarding socially vulnerable individuals from November 2013 to November 2017, representing non-beneficiaries as beneficiaries.

Subsequently, based on the entered false data, they registered these individuals in the list of beneficiaries of the “Family Benefit” system, which was approved by the head of the Vardenis Territorial Agency for Social Support. They illegally prepared and delivered cash benefits to these individuals through the postal subdivisions of “Haypost” PLC each month. Consequently, a total of 231,942,500 AMD was embezzled, with postal workers assisting in collecting this sum under fraudulent circumstances, and the agency employees signed official documents in the beneficiaries' names to conceal their criminal activities.

Furthermore, as the mayor of the Vardenis community from November 13, 2017, to December 2018, he was informed about the intentions of two local residents to illegally seize a public park area and construct cafes without building permits. He verbally consented to this and failed to take any measures to prevent illegal land use and to address the consequences. This lack of action resulted in the Vardenis community losing the opportunity to utilize the park area on its own land.

During the investigation, the former mayor of Vardenis and the two employees of the Vardenis Territorial Agency for Social Support admitted to the embezzlement of approximately 231,942,500 AMD. With sufficient evidence gathered, the former mayor has been charged under Article 308 (abuse of official authority), part 1 (two episodes), Article 325 (forgery of documents, seals, or stamps), part 2, and Article 178 (fraud), part 3, point 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. He has been arrested, and the prosecuting authority has requested the court to choose detention as a preventive measure.