Prosecutor's Office Requests Court to Confiscate Former Minister's Illegal Assets

The Office of the Prosecutor General of Armenia has filed a request with the court to confiscate the illegally acquired assets of the former Minister of Environment, Aram Harutyunyan, along with two individuals linked to him.

According to the prosecutor's office, the request specifically mentions:

• 2 apartments and 1 residential house in Yerevan, a hotel-restaurant complex, a garage, and two land plots located in the Ararat and Gegharkunik regions, with a total estimated market value exceeding 2.5 billion AMD;
• Shares of three companies, where the market value of real estate belonging to one of the companies alone amounts to over 8.16 billion AMD;
• An invested amount of $1,661,628 in a bank, illegal cash reserves of 4,391,805,299 AMD, and an additional 272,975,855 AMD which cannot be justified by the individual's legal income and is of illegal origin.

It is noteworthy that on January 13, the Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia announced the completion of an investigation into a criminal case against former Minister of Environment Aram Harutyunyan involving the receipt of $14 million in bribes, money laundering, and other corrupt practices.

The pre-trial investigation revealed that several individuals, including former National Assembly member Aleksan Petrosyan, former Deputy Director of a state agency under the ministry Suren Avagyan, former Director of the Sevan Psychiatric Hospital Gagik Karapetyan, and others close to Harutyunyan, were also involved in the corrupt practices.

It was established that from June 8, 2007, while serving as the Minister of Environment, Harutyunyan demanded a $14 million bribe from businessman Silva Hambardzumyan in exchange for granting permission to exploit mines. Between January and November 2008, he received a $6 million bribe from the same businesswoman through Suren Avagyan. The remaining $8 million was transferred with the assistance of Harutyunyan’s associates to various accounts opened in the United Arab Emirates.

Subsequently, these funds were transferred to accounts belonging to Harutyunyan’s associates Gagik Karapetyan, Armen Khachatryan, and Viktor Martirosyan. At Harutyunyan's request, his associates traveled to the UAE, where part of the funds was cashed, with $3 million deposited into a joint account of Harutyunyan and his wife Hasmik Abgaryan at a national bank in Abu Dhabi.

Following this, Harutyunyan himself traveled to the UAE and cashed the bribe money through various banking transactions.

Charges have been brought against Aram Harutyunyan under Article 311, Part 4, Clause 2 of the RA Criminal Code (receiving a large-scale bribe by an organized group), Article 190, Part 3, Clause 1 (legalizing illegally obtained income, i.e., money laundering), and Article 308, Part 2 (abuse of official powers).

Gagik Karapetyan has been charged under Article 311, Part 4, Clause 2, Article 190, Part 3, Clause 1, and Article 329, Part 1 (illegal crossing of the state border). Suren Avagyan has been charged under Article 311, Part 4, Clause 2. Considering that these individuals have evaded participation in the criminal proceedings, the proceedings have been conducted in absentia.

Preventive measures have been applied to Aram Harutyunyan, Suren Avagyan, and Gagik Karapetyan, including their detention. A seizure has been placed on $30 million worth of assets and financial resources owned by them.

The investigation continues regarding Araks Dilanian and Viktor Martirosyan, who are linked to the former minister. It should be noted that a search warrant for Aram Harutyunyan was issued in January 2019.