Owner of 'Nor Zovq' and 3 Employees Arrested

Based on a report received from the investigation and operational intelligence department of the State Revenue Committee of Armenia, extensive pre-trial proceedings have been initiated in the main investigation department for economic crimes and smuggling of the Investigative Committee of Armenia under the features of part 3 of point 2 of Article 290 of the Criminal Code of Armenia.

During these proceedings, it was uncovered that there were indications of tax violations at LLC 'Nor Zovq', specifically a criminal mechanism to evade tax obligations by significantly underreporting sales turnover through the use of information technologies.

As a result of various investigative and evidentiary operations carried out by employees of the Investigative Committee, National Security Service, and the State Revenue Committee, factual data were obtained indicating that A.A., the owner of 100% of the shares of LLC 'Nor Zovq', in preliminary agreement with responsible individuals of the company, namely director R.A. and chief accountant S.S., intentionally concealed tax objects by inputting distorted data into the company's tax calculations to avoid paying taxes amounting to 4,127,611,164 AMD between 2019 and 2023.

To execute this criminal intent without obstruction, A.A. engaged a software company during the period to provide the necessary tools and means for committing the crimes at the request of the owner and for a fee, intending to hide the revenues from all the stores of ‘Nor Zovq’ while simultaneously monitoring the actual turnover. Specifically, a commercial program was deployed within the network of ‘Nor Zovq’ stores that was integrated with a concealed electronic server system.

The implementation of the program and the electronic server system in the stores of ‘Nor Zovq’ led to the accumulation of actual sales revenue data in the electronic server system, while buyers conducting transactions through the stores were provided with receipts generated by the external (commercial) program corresponding to the actual amounts paid. Consequently, between 2019 and 2023, the reported turnover in the submitted tax return reports fell short, resulting in unpaid state budget amounts of 2,205,858,586 AMD in value-added tax and 1,921,752,578 AMD in profit tax.

Based on the factual information obtained during the investigation, the prosecuting authority submitted a motion to the supervisory prosecutor regarding the criminal actions committed by owner A.A. of LLC ‘Nor Zovq’, director R.A., chief accountant S.S., and the owner of the aforementioned software company V.S. for their assistance in these criminal acts. The motions were granted, and they were arrested for presentation to the court. The investigation is ongoing.

Notice: The accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty in accordance with the procedures established by the Criminal Procedure Code of Armenia and a legally binding court decision.