Wanted Mihran Poghosyan is Engaged in Business in Moscow

Former chief enforcement officer of judicial acts, justice major-general, and MP from 2017 to 2019, Mihran Poghosyan, who is currently wanted by the RA law enforcement authorities, is engaged in business in Moscow. Russia has rejected the requests of Armenian law enforcement to extradite Poghosyan.

The article from "Hetq" is presented below:

Mihran Poghosyan is accused of several episodes after the regime change in 2018. In April 2019, the Special Investigative Service of Armenia (currently the Anti-Corruption Committee) announced that Mihran Poghosyan was involved as an accused in the commission of public danger acts, having misappropriated particularly large amounts of property and abused his official authority, which has caused serious consequences. According to the accusation, Poghosyan accommodated his personal bodyguard and driver in the State Revenue Committee, issuing salaries in their names, despite the allegation that they did not attend work and continued to serve Poghosyan instead. It should be noted that in December 2022, public criminal prosecution was initiated against the bodyguard and driver.

According to the Anti-Corruption Committee, besides this episode, the State Revenue Committee, operating under Poghosyan's leadership, had timely acquired 32 vehicles of the brand "BYD" within state procurement, of which 20 were bought for a price much higher than the actual market price, according to the Anti-Corruption Committee. Moreover, the service purchased the vehicles from "Catherine Group", a company founded in 1997 by Poghosyan himself, which he later transferred to another organization but continued to manage de facto.

The Anti-Corruption Committee also included an offshore episode in Poghosyan's case, based on an investigation conducted by "Hetq" in 2016. Accordingly, Poghosyan established companies in Panama, a tax haven, and participated in their management through foreign and Armenian directors, which means he engaged in entrepreneurial activities without having the right to do so. The offshore companies also established in Armenia involve "Best Realty" LLC, whose ultimate beneficial owner was, in fact, Mihran Poghosyan. This LLC, according to the accusation, provided real estate and movable property valuation services to the State Revenue Committee led by Poghosyan, one of which "Hetq" reported back in 2014.

After Poghosyan was attracted as an accused, the Anti-Corruption Committee announced a wanted notice and obtained a court decision for his arrest. Soon it became known that Poghosyan had been arrested in Russia, although his lawyer denied this. The Anti-Corruption Committee announced that the extradition of the former high-ranking official was in process. Simultaneously, it was reported that he had applied for political asylum in Russia. A little later, Russia rejected Poghosyan's extradition to Armenia, citing a provision of an international convention, which stipulates that a request for legal assistance may be denied if it could harm the sovereignty or security of the requested party (in this case, Russia) or contradict its legislation. The RA Prosecutor General's Office reported that the Russian side had not provided clear information regarding the specific grounds for refusal.

In September 2019, the Anti-Corruption Committee announced that Mihran Poghosyan had also been engaged in legalizing property obtained through criminal means (money laundering). The Prosecutor's Office aims to confiscate Poghosyan’s and his close relatives’ property considered illegal. Since October 2020, the RA Prosecutor's Office had been investigating Poghosyan's assets to determine their legality. And in September 2022, the Prosecutor's Office filed a lawsuit to confiscate presumably illegally obtained property in favor of the RA from Poghosyan and seven individuals closely associated with him. The lawsuit was accepted for proceedings in October.

According to the Prosecutor's Office, the confiscable property includes the following: 15 real estate properties located within Armenia, 2 individual residential houses in Yerevan, 1 garage, 12 public utility areas, 3 vehicles, and, in the event of impossibility, their average market value amounting to over AMD 3 billion 502 million 570 thousand, as well as shares in 6 legal entities, rights over a total of AMD 710 million 839 thousand 400 in loans granted to individuals and legal entities, AMD 456 million 628 thousand 637 as a remainder of illegal incomes, as well as AMD 6 billion 141 million 24 thousand, which is unsubstantiated by the individual's legal income and is of illegal origin and can't be confiscated.

In Russia, Mihran Poghosyan's Russian company is engaged in commerce. Alongside establishing himself in Russia, Mihran Poghosyan, who previously combined business and official duties in Armenia without accountability for years, has not remained idle and has re-entered the business sector. On December 27, 2018, he registered "PGS" LLC in the Russian Federation, of which Poghosyan is the sole owner. If the company's authorized capital was 10 thousand rubles initially, by March 2019, it had increased to 10.3 million rubles. The main activity of "PGS" is wholesale trade in fruits and vegetables.

It should be noted that Mihran Poghosyan, known by the nickname "Catherine Mihran", was once the main importer of bananas in Armenia through "Catherine Group". Absurdly, to evade taxes, the company imported bananas into Armenia under the regime of "temporary import for processing", then claimed that after processing the bananas, it exported banana oil to the Bahamas, while in reality, what was exported, according to the customs authorities, was sunflower oil, not bananas.

The activities of "PGS" also include wholesale trading of fresh potatoes, canned fruits and vegetables, fresh meat and meat products, alcoholic beverages, freight services, transportation truck rental, leasing, and packaging activities. It should be noted that this company of Mihran Poghosyan was registered as a micro-enterprise in 2019 and according to the last publicly available data on the internet, it has 12 employees. In 2021, according to official data, "PGS"'s revenues amounted to 195 million rubles, with expenses of 194.5 million.

The general director is Housik Margaryan, an RA citizen registered in Sevan. His name is associated with several companies established in Armenia, most of which, however, do not currently operate.

"PGS" is registered in the Ramensky district of Moscow, in the "Victory Park" (formerly "Minskaya Plaza") business center.

For more details, refer to the original source.