President of Armenia's Figure Skating Federation Accused of Embezzling State Budget Funds

The President of the "Figure Skating Federation of Armenia" has been accused of embezzling part of the funds allocated from the RA state budget. This emerged during the criminal proceedings initiated by the Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia, which are currently being investigated by the Malatia-Sebastia Investigative Division of the RA Investigative Committee.

During the pre-trial investigation, it was revealed that the federation's president, using their official position, embezzled a total of 13,007,200 AMD allocated from the RA state budget, with the intention of not returning the unspent portion of this amount to the state budget. Specifically, it was established that in January 2020, the federation’s president signed a contract with the Secretary General of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport to allocate funds for the "Preparation of Athletes and Conducting Competitions for Participation in the Championships of the Republic of Armenia and International Events".

However, after some events planned in the 2020 annual budget were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the federation’s president presented a report containing false information regarding actual expenses to the Ministry, falsely claiming that 1,050,000 AMD was spent on a training camp for athletes and their coaches of the Armenian figure skating national team from December 1 to December 25, 2020. As a result, the president embezzled this amount.

Based on sufficient accumulated evidence, charges have been filed against the federation’s president under the 2nd part of Article 179, Clause 1 of the former RA Criminal Code, which corresponds to the 2nd part of Clause 2 of Article 256 of the current criminal code, as well as under the 1st part of Article 445 of the current criminal code, which corresponds to Article 314 of the former criminal code. A travel ban has been imposed as a measure of restraint, and a decision has been made to suspend the president from their position at the "Figure Skating Federation of Armenia". The investigation continues.

Note: The suspect is presumed innocent until proven guilty by a final court judgment in accordance with the procedures established by the RA Criminal Procedure Code.