Decision on Vahan Kerobyan to Be Announced at 1 PM

The court will announce its decision regarding former Minister of Economy Vahan Kerobyan at 1 PM. The information has been provided by a source at Sputnik Armenia.

“Kerobyan stayed in the court overnight. The discussion of the motion lasted until late at night. The court is currently in the deliberation room,” said a source to Sputnik.

It should be noted that the corruption scandal surrounding officials of the Ministry of Economy of Armenia began on January 31. On the same day, Ani Ispiryan was relieved of her duties as Deputy Minister of Economy. That day, the National Security Service (NSS) and the Investigative Committee (IC) conducted searches at the Ministry of Economy and in several private residences (in total, more than 15 locations) and arrested seven individuals.

According to the IC, it was revealed that officials of the Ministry of Economy had facilitated the victory of a preferred participant in the competition for the establishment of the “Public Investment Programs Bank”, creating obstacles for other participants and effectively removing them from the competition. As a result, a company submitted a price proposal that was nearly three times higher, exceeding 392 million drams, and was declared the winner over its competitor.

In another episode, an official from the Ministry of Economy maintained close relations with one of the beneficiaries of the state support program for the establishment of intensive orchards and, being aware of the details of other beneficiaries, did not reject their financial compensation even though he knew that their documents did not meet the requirements established by the program. Consequently, through the mentioned program, the Ministry of Economy disbursed an unjustified compensation amounting to 238,418,100 drams to several beneficiaries, which they fraudulently embezzled.

In one of his recent briefings, Vahan Kerobyan excluded the possibility that the corruption scandal could be related to him.