Hydropower Plant on the Marts River Sold for 50,000 Drams, Prime Minister's Brother Becomes Director

The former mayor of Vanadzor and his brother sold the hydropower plant on the Marts River for 50,000 drams, where Prime Minister Pashinyan's brother has now become the director. The questionable transaction was made between the Darbinians and Khachatur Kokobelyan’s 20-year-old nephew, Yuri Kokobelyan, two months before last year's parliamentary elections.

According to state registry data, on the day of the sale, the company’s director became the Prime Minister's brother, Armen Pashinyan, who had lived in Russia and returned to Armenia after the 2018 revolution.

Ecolur.org reported that “after a written inquiry from Azatutyun, the state registry provided a one-and-a-half-page sales contract stating: ‘The sellers are selling their 100 percent shares to the buyer with ownership rights. The price of the shares is set at 50,000 drams by mutual agreement of the parties.’ Notably, according to the same registry, the value of the shares sold for 50,000 drams is approximately 250 million drams.

Information from the Armenian Electric Networks indicates that this hydropower plant produced nearly half a million dollars worth of output only in 2019-20. Why did the Darbinians sell this profitable plant for nearly one hundred dollars? Did the company have debts or loans at the time of the sale? The former mayor and his brother declined to comment.

According to the state registry, the new owner, young Yuri Kokobelyan, is either a proprietor or director in various businesses. He could not be found at his registered address in Yerevan, and no information about his activities exists anywhere.

His uncle, Khachatur Kokobelyan, head of the 'Free Democrats' party, did not respond at all to our calls. It was impossible to clarify how they managed to convince the Darbinians to sell the company for 100 dollars, which had brought them income for ten years.

The representative of the hydropower plant, Asharhik, stated to Azatutyun days ago that the plant had never shut down for an extended period during its ten years of operation. - “If there is a significant drop in water levels, we shut it down at that time; it might be one day, or it could be 5 hours.”

While avoiding discussing the details of the sale, the Darbinians simultaneously deny that they abandoned a profitable business in exchange for dropping criminal cases against them.

It is clear that just a few months after this transaction, the court found former mayor Samvel Darbinyan guilty of illegally alienating lands in the Vanadzor jurisdiction and causing 60 million drams in damages to the community, while simultaneously deciding to drop the case due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.

“Such things do not exist; all are serious conversations,” emphasized Samvel Darbinyan.

Moreover, this hydropower plant owned by the Darbinians had been involved in a scandalous criminal case since 2019. The Prosecutor's Office had provided evidence that during Samvel Darbinyan's tenure in 2010, the Vanadzor sewage treatment plant was illegally alienated. Darbinyan had organized a fake auction and sold the 240 million dram facility for four times less, at 60 million drams, to an acquaintance. Law enforcement agencies have suspicions that the pipes and expensive equipment purchased at a low price were used in building the Darbinians' hydropower plant.

Last year, Lori province prosecutor Karen Gabrielyan had given his subordinates a week to report on this case. - “We have appointed a commodity and construction technical complex examination. It has been established that we will receive it soon, and based on the results, we will discuss the issue of bringing charges against the individual. The materials for this criminal case have been assigned to my attention, and I will report this week; we will also receive the examination conclusion.”