According to the Prosecutor's Office, the technician made money at the expense of a government plane. Who is he?

On February 13, the Prosecutor's Office of Armenia announced that K. A., the director of Armenian "Aquila Technics" LLC, allegedly caused around 102 million dram damage to the state due to a criminal act. According to the Prosecutor's announcement, the following took place:

K. A. signed a contract with the Civil Aviation Committee (CAC) of Armenia on December 28, 2018, committing to ensure the airworthiness maintenance and technical servicing of a certain aircraft. The Prosecutor's Office did not disclose which aircraft was in question; however, those familiar with civil aviation likely understood immediately that it was about a government aircraft, as the CAC could not have signed a contract for servicing a private company's aircraft. Furthermore, the announcement pertains to a government aircraft, as there is only one state aircraft registered and operated in Armenia, serving high-ranking officials of the country. The rest of the state aircraft (planes, helicopters) are military and under the Ministry of Defense's jurisdiction.

Since 2007, the sole government aircraft serving the highest leadership of Armenia (President, Prime Minister, sometimes Speaker of the National Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, etc.) is a 1998 model Airbus A319-132 (CJ), which is the business class version of the regular Airbus A319. From 2007 to 2014, the aircraft bore the registration EK-RA01; from 2014 to 2020, it was registered as "Armenia 701", and from 2020 to present, it has been registered as "Republic of Armenia 701". The aircraft, owned by the state, was attached to the office of the President from 2007 to 2018, and in March 2018, by the decree of then-serving President Serzh Sargsyan and the respective decision of the government, the aircraft was transferred to the balance of the Main Directorate of Civil Aviation of Armenia (now the Civil Aviation Committee) (a government decision in 2018 also mentioned the initial value of the aircraft as 17.4 billion dram).

This clarifies what connection the CAC has with the unspecified aircraft mentioned by the Prosecutor's Office. From 2007 to 2013, the aircraft was operated by the national carrier of Armenia, "Armavia", and from 2013 to 2014, by "Air Armenia", both of which were declared bankrupt. Since 2014, the government aircraft has been operated by the state-owned "Aviation Training Center", which is subordinate to the CAC.

The Prosecutor's Office has disclosed that within the framework of a criminal case initiated in the Special Investigation Department of the Investigative Committee of Armenia, it was established that in May 2021, K. A. was aware of the need to replace the "THS Actuator" spare part of the said aircraft due to corrosion and knew that this spare part could be acquired from the British company "Avtrade Limited" for $200,000. On May 7, 2021, using forged documentation, he offered the CAC to buy a used version of this spare part for $310,000 from the non-existent Cypriot company "Brightcom Aviation Ltd". Subsequently, with the aim of obtaining greater profit and by abusing the trust of the senior management of the CAC, on May 17, 2021, again using forged documentation, he claimed that the aforementioned used spare part had been sold and instead offered to acquire the same spare part from "Brightcom Aviation Ltd" for a higher price of $370,000. As a result, instead of receiving the spare part for $200,000 from "Avtrade Limited", on November 25, 2021, K. A. presented to the CAC a supposedly forged invoice dated May 30 of that year for acquiring the spare part from the then non-existent "Brightcom Aviation Ltd".

Thus, for the acquisition of the spare part, $370,000 was transferred from the CAC to "Aquila Technics" LLC, led by K. A., of which an especially large amount equivalent to about 84 million dram, was allegedly embezzled by K. A. through fraudulent means, using his official position.

The "THS Actuator" is a mechanism that regulates the horizontal stabilizer of the aircraft, the operation of which is demonstrated in the video. The Prosecutor's Office reported that the prosecutor overseeing the criminal proceedings instructed the inspector of the Investigative Committee to undertake a series of procedural actions to comply with the requirements. As a result, as stated by the Prosecutor's Office, it was established that the alleged crime caused 102 million 350 thousand 371 dram of damage to the state. On December 23, 2022, this amount was entirely transferred to the deposit account of the Investigative Committee. However, in addition to this, as mentioned earlier, in May 2021, there was no company named "Brightcom Aviation Ltd" in Cyprus.

On February 9, 2023, the materials of the criminal proceedings were again received at the Prosecutor's Office for verification, during which it was discovered that in an effort to cover up the act, conceal traces of the crime and provide a legal appearance to the committed crime, K. A. founded a company named "Brightcom Limited" at the address indicated in the forged invoices presented to the CAC on June 8, 2021 (Cyprus, Larnaca District, Athienou village, Gastrus 4).

According to the Prosecutor's Office, in order to cover up the non-existence of the company mentioned in the documents dated May 2021, K. A. established a company in Cyprus in June. It is also confirmed by the official data from the Cyprus registry that "Brightcom Limited" was registered there on June 6, 2021, in the village of Athienou, Larnaca. Vasiliki Argiroun was registered as the director and secretary of the company, who is essentially a local.

According to the Prosecutor's information, as a result of the investigation of the criminal proceedings on February 13, 2023, the supervising prosecutor decided on his own initiative to initiate public criminal prosecution against K. A. under the then-applicable (former) Article 178, Part 3, Clause 1 of the Criminal Code (the embezzlement of particularly large amounts of someone else's property through fraud) and Article 325, Part 1 (forgery and use of a legally significant document). On the same day, the materials of the criminal proceedings and the decision to initiate public criminal prosecution against K. A. were sent from the Prosecutor’s Office to the investigating officer for the purpose of discussing the charges against K. A. and the application of relevant precautionary measures against him.

Who is the director of "Aquila Technics"? "Aquila Technics" LLC was founded in Yerevan in February 2014 ("aquila" means eagle in Latin). The owners were four individuals: Yerevanians Hayk Harutyunyan (25%), Ishkhan Adamyan (24.5%), Martin Movsesyan (24.5%) and Gyumri resident Karen Avdalyan (26%). From 2014 to 2017, the company's director was Ishkhan Adamyan (his daughter served as director from February to April 2014), followed by Karen Avdalyan. H. Harutyunyan exited from the composition of the company's shareholders in 2017, and I. Adamyan in 2022. Currently, 50.8% of the LLC belongs to director K. Avdalyan, while the remaining 49.2% belongs to M. Movsesyan.

In June 2014, the company received the relevant certificate from the main department of civil aviation of Armenia (now the Civil Aviation Committee), which allowed it to provide services to aircraft registered in Armenia. At that time, Karen Avdalyan stated that they were the first local technical support organization and outlined their upcoming goals. Since its establishment in 2014, "Aquila Technics" has been providing technical support services to the government (presidential) aircraft, as well as to the leading Armenian aviation market operator "Air Armenia" during 2013-2014. It is worth noting that "Air Armenia" was declared bankrupt in November 2015 due to financial problems. Moreover, after that, "Air Armenia" had a recovery plan, but some of its creditors, including "Aquila Technics", were against this plan. In order to resume commercial operations, "Air Armenia" was to sign a contract with a company providing aircraft technical maintenance services, and it applied to its former partner, "Aquila Technics", which it owed more than 15 million dram. "Aquila" stated that it was concerned that its debt would increase rather than be paid off, which is why it did not accept the cooperation proposal. This became one of the main reasons for the failure of "Air Armenia"'s recovery plan.

43-year-old Karen Avdalyan is the son of Karine Avdalyan, the former director of the Gyumri branch of the Komitas State Conservatory and founder of the "Revival" international competition-festival. Karine Avdalyan has had close relationships with the wife of the third president, Rita Sargsyan, who was a sponsor of the "Revival" competition, as well as with the younger brother of the third president, Levon Sargsyan, who was a co-chairman of "Revival". The "Phoenix" charitable foundation, whose council of trustees was chaired by Levon Sargsyan, was among the organizers of the competition-festival. Given this background, it should not come as a surprise that "Aquila Technics" was registered at 3 Buzand Street in the center of Yerevan until its address was moved to "Zvartnots" airport in 2018, a building constructed by "JLJ Project Company" LLC (later recognized as bankrupt, with a criminal case initiated regarding this, and the company was subsequently dissolved).

The owners of "JLJ Project Company" were the "Phoenix" charitable foundation (president: Gabriel Chembershyan, council chairman: Levon Sargsyan), Narek Sargsyan (Levon Sargsyan's son), and Gabriel Chembershyan (details here).

Karine Avdalyan has not been exempt from criminal prosecution. After the regime change in 2018, employees and students of the Gyumri branch of the conservatory began to protest against director Avdalyan, voicing numerous complaints about various phenomena that occurred during her leadership. Later, Avdalyan was charged, and a travel restriction was applied, but when new developments in the criminal case became known, the court decided to detain Karine Avdalyan. In a conversation with Hetq, she expressed confidence that she was being "punished" for having proposed to award Levon Sargsyan the honorary title of distinguished Gyumretzi.

Karine Avdalyan was briefly involved in the aviation business as well. In 2011, her son, Karen Avdalyan, founded "Aquila Chrysaetos Consulting" LLC ("aquila crysaetos" means golden eagle in Latin), which was initially named "Avdalyan Avia" from 2011 to 2012. Ms. Avdalyan was the first director of this company from March to December 2011. Currently, the sole owner and director of the LLC is Karen Avdalyan's wife, Gyumri resident Liana Amiryan, but according to the State Revenue Committee, the company has temporarily ceased operations. This Avdalyans' company is also currently registered at "Zvartnots" airport, and its activity type is service provision.