Former Head of Police Protection Service Launders 1.4 Billion Drams through Criminal Means

The Prosecutor's Office has initiated public criminal proceedings against Vardan Minasian, who held several positions, including that of military commissioner for Arabkir and Kentron, and head of the State Protection Service of the Police from 1992 to 2018, for embezzling large sums of money and money laundering in significant amounts. This information has been reported by the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia.

Specifically, after being appointed as head of the State Protection Service on April 13, 2015, V.M. instructed Kh.A., who served as head of the Armavir protection division, to misappropriate state funds entrusted to him and to provide him with a share of 1,000 USD monthly, assuring that the embezzlement would not be detected. As a result, during the specified period, V.M. organized the embezzlement of 13 million 935 thousand 200 drams, of which the equivalent of 17 thousand USD, totaling 8 million 239 thousand 390 drams, was given to V.M. as a share of the stolen money.

From 1992 until 2018, V.M. held multiple positions in the Ministry of Defense and the Police, receiving approximately 821 thousand 128 rubles and 39 million drams in salary. However, during the same period, he acquired and sold various real estate and movable properties, and illicitly deposited varying amounts of cash in banks operating in Armenia, creating deposits and making transfers that significantly exceeded his legal income.

V.M. has laundered a total of 1 billion 418 million 60 thousand 977 drams with the aim to participate in entrepreneurial activities, assist in the embezzlement of state property, and conceal and distort the criminal origin of income derived from criminal means.