14 Million Dram Embezzled from Russian Citizens under the Pretext of Renting Apartments in Yerevan

The preliminary investigation into a case of large-scale embezzlement by a 27-year-old man from over twenty citizens of Russia and Armenia, through abuse of trust, has been completed.

According to the comprehensive investigation conducted by the first investigative division of the Central and Norq-Marash administrative districts of the RA Investigative Committee, it has been established that the 27-year-old individual, taking advantage of the fact that numerous citizens from Russia were moving to Armenia, posted advertisements on various internet pages regarding the rental of apartments from March 2021 to November 2022, attaching photographs of various apartments collected from the internet.

Following the advertisements, he was contacted by over twenty citizens from Armenia and primarily Russia. The young man presented himself as an authorized person to lease apartments located on Buzand and Abovyan streets in North Avenue, Yerevan. Under the pretext of renting these apartments, he demanded and received large sums of money as advance rental payments, equivalent to amounts up to approximately 2 million drams in foreign currency.

After receiving the funds, the young man did not provide the apartments to the respective citizens, no longer responded to their attempts to contact him, causing them significant property damages.

It was also revealed that upon learning about the intentions of citizens to return from the Russian Federation to the Republic of Armenia, he posted an advertisement on the internet regarding currency exchange under favorable conditions. Based on this advertisement, citizens who contacted him transferred Russian foreign currency to a bank account provided by him. However, the 27-year-old did not transfer the promised money to the citizens, did not answer their phone calls or messages, and fraudulently embezzled the transferred funds.

Furthermore, with the intent of embezzling significant amounts of money through fraud, the 27-year-old also deceived a 34-year-old and a 21-year-old woman under the pretext of engaging in joint business activities as well as selling an “Iphone 13 Pro” mobile phone, taking various sums from them.

A total of 22 citizens from Russia and 4 citizens from Armenia suffered from the young man's criminal actions, with the total financial damage exceeding 14,000,000 AMD, of which 2,100,000 AMD has been recovered during the investigation.

Based on sufficient evidence gathered, charges have been brought against the 27-year-old individual under Part 1 of Article 178 of the former Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, which corresponds to Part 1 of Article 255 of the current Criminal Code (5 episodes), under Part 2, Clause 2 of Article 178 of the former Criminal Code, which corresponds to Clause 3 of Part 2 of Article 255 of the current Criminal Code (6 episodes), under Part 1 of Article 255 of the current Criminal Code (8 episodes), under Clause 3 of Part 2 of Article 255 of the current Criminal Code (7 episodes), and under Clause 3 of Part 2 of Article 255 of the current Criminal Code.

The preliminary investigation has been completed. The materials of the criminal case, with an indictment conclusion, have been sent to the supervising prosecutor for approval and subsequent submission to the court.