What Apartment Is the Press Talking About? Simonian's Spokesperson States It Has Been Sold

IKM coordinator and Public Council member Daniel Ioannissian made a post on Facebook mentioning, “Alen Simonian has concealed a nice apartment on Abovyan Street from the public and relevant authorities. The Fact-checking Platform has caught Alen Simonian for the second time on the fact of submitting incorrect declarations of property and income. The first time (in 2019), a proceeding was initiated based on this, and a warning was applied to Simonian. But this time, the violation is much more serious.”

Auroranews tried to clarify which apartment is being referred to and contacted Alen Simonian’s spokesperson, Zovinar Khachatryan. Details are in the recording.

Previously, fip.am published an article claiming that Alen Simonian has hidden property. Here is an excerpt from that publication: In 2012, at the request of Alen Simonian and his mother, Marine Hovhannisyan, Yerevan Mayor Taron Margaryan decided to allow them to privatize part of apartment number 6 at 62 Abovyan Street in the form of a donation. Simonian is still considered a co-owner of this real estate. Up to now, Simonian has submitted four declarations of property and income. Although he is still considered a co-owner of the real estate located at 62 Abovyan Street, there is no mention of it in any of Simonian’s declarations.

In May 2019, Alen Simonian sold an apartment located at 1/1 Ekmalyan Street. This 77.97 square meter apartment, purchased for just 22 million drams in 2017, was sold by Simonian two years later for 125 million drams. The same year, Simonian bought another, much larger apartment of 143.23 square meters in the same building for 114 million drams. Simonian declared this property as joint ownership, while according to cadastral documents, it belongs solely to him, and no other person has ownership rights over this apartment.

In September, Simonian pledged his apartment at Hayekonombank for 25 million drams. Interestingly, an independent appraiser valued this apartment at 131.7 million drams, even though it was bought just a month earlier for 114 million drams. Coincidentally, about 10 days before the pledge, Simonian's wife, Mariam Margaryan, established a company called “Effemef Group,” which, according to the State Revenue Committee, is engaged in professional, scientific, and technical activities. It is difficult to determine what this entails, as there is almost no data about this company in open sources.

Smaller declaration by Simonian's wife: Not everything is presented in the declarations of Alen Simonian's wife, Mariam Margaryan. Examination of these reveals that Margaryan did not submit the declaration of property and income that her husband owned as of his assumption of office, although according to the law on public service, she is required to submit a declaration of property and income to the Ethics Commission for high-ranking officials. Margaryan submitted her first declaration at the end of 2018. At that time, according to the then-effective law, only information about real estate acquired and alienated during the year needed to be included in the annual declaration. Since Margaryan did not conduct any real estate transactions that year, nothing was presented in the declaration.

This means that by not submitting a declaration at the time her husband assumed office, Margaryan effectively concealed her own real estate and monetary assets.

In her subsequent declaration of 2019, Margaryan declared an apartment in the center. And despite the law requiring information about real estate acquired and/or alienated during the reporting year to also be reflected, no real estate transaction was reported in Margaryan’s declaration that year. As Margaryan did not conduct any real estate transactions in the previous year either, we can argue that Margaryan acquired this apartment before 2018.

Notably, the date of acquisition of the apartment was protected in Margaryan’s 2019 declaration, which was another violation of the law. However, the Corruption Prevention Commission first stated that the protection of this information is a legal requirement, and then, while the Fact-Checking Platform was studying the cadastral documents revealing that Margaryan became the owner of this apartment in 2014, the commission “declassified” the date of purchase of Margaryan’s apartment.

Thus, we establish that Alen Simonian and his wife continue to conceal full information about their property and income in their declarations, presenting it only partially. The Fact-Checking Platform will soon publish another investigation related to another piece of real estate concerning the Speaker of the National Assembly.

Ignorance of the law, inertia, or intent? Interestingly, during the verification of the declarations of Alen Simonian and associated persons, we found that prior to the implementation of the new public service law (January 1, 2020), the spouses, parents, and adult unmarried children living with high-ranking officials never submitted a declaration of property and income to the Ethics Commission as of the official’s assumption of office. Meanwhile, the Public Service Act adopted in 2011 (Article 32, part 4) clearly defines that the spouse, cohabiting parent, and adult unmarried children living together with the high-ranking official are required and in accordance with the procedure set out for high-ranking officials to submit a declaration of their property and income to the Ethics Commission. We will present further studies regarding why individuals associated with high-ranking officials did not submit a declaration of property and income as of the official’s assumption of office.