Case of $10,000 Bribery Uncovered: The Briber Identified

The newspaper "Hraparak" reports that the Anti-Corruption Committee announced the discovery of a case involving a $10,000 bribe. It has been revealed that S. Z. approached Vahagn Gevorgyan, the head of the Water Committee of the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure of Armenia, in December 2021 and January 2022 in order to be appointed as his assistant, deputy, or chief secretary, but was rejected.

Later, on April 27, 2022, under the pretext of presenting a proposal regarding the irrigation system, S. Z. visited Gevorgyan and provided a bribe equivalent to 4,599,800 Armenian drams in dollars to Gevorgyan for either presenting a proposal to the Minister of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure or for being appointed as chief secretary. He placed the money in a closed folder on Gevorgyan's desk, indicating that it contained documents and requesting him to review them.

Upon realizing that the folder contained the bribe money, V. Gevorgyan immediately reported the matter to the National Security Service of Armenia. Subsequently, on April 29, he summoned S. Z. to his office. Following Gevorgyan's demand, S. Z. retrieved the amount he had provided as a bribe and was immediately detained by NSS officers.

According to our information, S. Z. refers to Samson Zatikyan, who previously held the position of head of the Malatia division of the Water Committee and served as the chief secretary of the committee from 2018 to 2019. Earlier, he was also the head of the staff of Yerevan State University, and during that time, there were reports in the media about his nighttime visits and searches of university employees' offices, as well as his name being linked to a sex scandal involving rector Tokmajyan.

For further details, see today’s issue of the newspaper.