Remarkable Career Growth of Prime Minister Pashinyan's Brother After the Revolution

In the past year, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan's brother, Armen Pashinyan, has been appointed director of four companies. This was reported in an investigative article published by FIP.am.

Armen Pashinyan moved to Armenia after the 2018 revolution. Before that, he lived in the Russian Federation.

According to the state register of legal entities, on April 9 of last year, Armen Pashinyan became the director of two companies simultaneously: "Go Trade" and "Mina-Maya." "Go Trade" LLC was established shortly after the revolution, on June 14, 2018. The company is engaged in the rental and leasing of agricultural machinery and equipment, according to the State Revenue Committee. Very little could be found about this company in open sources, but according to the SRC, the company operated at a loss in 2019. The founder of the company is Khachatur Kokobelyan, the leader of the "Free Democrats" party and a former MP. The director was Hripsime Bochoyan, who was also an assistant to Khachatur Kokobelyan in the National Assembly and participated in the parliamentary elections in 2017 on the same party list.

The following year, in 2019, Khachatur Kokobelyan's brother-in-law, Meri Hakobyan, became the 100% shareholder of the company. The director was appointed Tigran Gevorgyan.

On April 9, 2021, Armen Pashinyan was appointed the director of the company. According to mandatory payments made to the Servicemen’s Insurance Foundation, the company had 1-2 employees from 2018 to 2020, and from 2021 onward, the amount of mandatory payments changed, making it impossible to clearly determine how many employees the company has. However, based on the mandatory payments made, we can argue that the company has a maximum of 4-5 registered employees.

Another company led by A. Pashinyan, "Mina-Maya," was founded in 2001. The company operates the "Aghavnadzor" and "Aghavnadzor HPP-1" hydroelectric power plants on the Yeghegis River. In 2008, shortly after Serzh Sargsyan became president, the shareholders of the company changed, and 50% ownership was acquired by Narek Sargsyan, the son of Serzh Sargsyan's brother. The other 50% shareholder is Grigor Arakelyan. After the Velvet Revolution, in 2019, the entire 100% ownership of the company was acquired by Khachatur Kokobelyan's brother, Vachik Kokobelyan, who was a candidate on the “We” alliance list in the 2018 early parliamentary elections. Tigran Gevorgyan was appointed as the director, who also held the director's position at "Go Trade."

In both cases, on April 9 of the previous year, Armen Pashinyan took over the directorship from Tigran Gevorgyan.

A few days later, on April 27, Armen Pashinyan also became the director of another company owned by the Kokobelyans, "Argishti-2" LLC. The company was established in February 2020. The founders are former Vanadzor mayor Samvel Darbinyan and his brother. Like "Mina-Maya," "Argishti-2" is engaged in electricity production and operates the "Marzigit HPP-2." On April 27 of last year, the company was acquired by Khachatur Kokobelyan's nephew, 20-year-old Yuri Kokobelyan, and on the same day, Armen Pashinyan was appointed as the company’s director. Since the following month, the previously non-producing hydroelectric station began to generate electricity.

As mentioned, before being acquired by the Kokobelyans, this company belonged to Samvel Darbinyan and his brother, each holding a 50% stake. It is known that a criminal case was initiated against Samvel Darbinyan back in August 2019 for several episodes of abuse of official power during his tenure.

Interestingly, months after Armen Pashinyan was appointed director of the company, the preliminary investigation into the criminal case that was initiated ended (more than 2 years after the case was opened) and was sent to court in October, where it was immediately dismissed, and the criminal prosecution against Darbinyan was halted.

However, the collaboration between the Kokobelyans and Pashinyans does not end there. In October of last year, a new company called "Mit Agro" LLC was established under Yuri Kokobelyan's name, which, according to the State Revenue Committee, is engaged in meat trading. The director, as in the previous Kokobelyan companies, was once again Tigran Gevorgyan.

However, on February 19 of this year, Armen Pashinyan was appointed new director of “Mit Agro” LLC, replacing Tigran Gevorgyan.

Once again, Armen Pashinyan replaced Tigran Gevorgyan as the director. So who is Tigran Gevorgyan? Although it was quite difficult to identify Tigran Gevorgyan due to the commonality of the name, it was possible to find out from the state register of legal entities that the same person holds management positions in several companies, one of which is "Executive Office No. 1" LLC. This company belonged to the chairwoman of the Anti-Corruption Committee, Sasun Khachatryan's wife, Lilit Khachatryan. In 2018, Lilit Khachatryan gifted this company to Tigran Gevorgyan.

Notably, during the interview for the position of head of the Anti-Corruption Committee in 2021, Sasun Khachatryan stated that Tigran Gevorgyan is the brother of his wife, Lilit Khachatryan. Thus, it turns out that previously, the Kokobelyan businesses were managed by Sasun Khachatryan's wife's brother, and since last year, the Kokobelyans have been replacing Tigran Gevorgyan with Armen Pashinyan.

Before the 2018 revolution, Armen Pashinyan lived in the Russian Federation and only returned to Armenia after the revolution. According to mandatory payments made to the Servicemen’s Insurance Fund, Armen Pashinyan began working in Armenia from February 2019. In order to understand what Armen Pashinyan was engaged in before the revolution, we contacted him. Armen Pashinyan confirmed to us that he returned to Armenia after the revolution and that he worked in a logistics company as the director of logistics before that. When asked which logistics company he was referring to, Pashinyan refused to answer, stating that permission from the company's director was required for that.