Former Police Officials Accused of Embezzling Approximately 50 Million Drams

The Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia has established, through collected evidence from an ongoing criminal investigation, that Kh. A., who served as the head of the Armavir Division of the State Protection Department of the Police of Armenia from 2013 to 2018, embezzled substantial amounts of money with the assistance of division staff and under the organization of individuals who held the position of chief of the State Protection Department during that period, as well as falsifying official documents.

Specifically, it has been revealed during the preliminary investigation that from June 29, 2013, to June 23, 2018, Kh. A. signed contracts regarding the security services for facilities with 42 physical and legal persons. Based on these contracts, the division’s employees provided security for the specified facilities in exchange for monthly payments. R. M., V. M., and A. Z., who successively held the chief position of the State Protection Department of the Police during that time, directed Kh. A. to embezzle money from the payments made by the operating entities under these contracts, promising him a monthly share of the embezzled sums while assuring him that the embezzlement would remain undetected.

Kh. A. entered into verbal agreements with these operating entities, although he did not have the right to conduct cash transactions, convincing them to hand over the payments in cash instead of transferring them to the designated bank accounts. Subsequently, Kh. A. instructed A. A., the commander of a section in the same division, to personally collect the monthly fees from these entities and give them to him.

As a result, A. A. collected the required amounts each month from the specified business entities and handed them over entirely to Kh. A. However, Kh. A. did not deposit these amounts into the division's off-budget account; in an attempt to conceal the embezzlement, he, with the preliminary agreement of S. V. and G. A., who held the position of the division's accountant in various years, falsified the corresponding reports, which included false information about whether the mentioned business entities had made the necessary payments as stipulated by the contracts.

Consequently, with the assistance of those mentioned, Kh. A. embezzled 49,472,474 drams that were meant to be transferred to the division’s account. During R. M.'s tenure, he transferred an equivalent of 4,918,032 drams (11,900 USD), during V. M.'s tenure he transferred 8,239,390 drams (17,000 USD), and during A. Z.'s tenure he transferred 8,678,520 drams (18,000 USD).

For the commission of these criminal acts, Kh. A. has been charged under Article 256, Part 3, Point 3 of the Criminal Code of Armenia, while A. A. and G. A. are accused under Article 46-256, Part 3, Point 3 and Article 445, Part 1 of the Criminal Code. R. M. and A. Z. are also charged under the same articles. The preliminary investigation regarding these defendants has been concluded, and the materials of the case have been submitted to the supervising prosecutor with a request to forward it to the court.