Criminal Proceedings to Be Initiated Against the Minister of Finance

Criminal proceedings will be launched concerning the acts of corruption risks involving Vahe Hovhannisyan. Ara Zohrapyan, the rector of the Law Academy, announced this on his Facebook page:

“As you recall, a group of lawyers had approached the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia on December 4, 2024, regarding the initiation of criminal proceedings about the corruption risk acts of the Minister of Finance, Vahe Hovhannisyan. Anti-Corruption Committee investigator B. Chilingaryan refused to initiate criminal proceedings on December 25, 2024. Complaints submitted to the Prosecutor General's Office of Armenia and subsequently to the Anti-Corruption Court (Judge T. Davtyan) were rejected by decisions issued on January 7, 2025, and February 27, 2025, respectively.

Today, on April 3, 2025, the Court of Appeals of the Anti-Corruption Court (Judge Karen Amiryan) has annulled the decision of the Anti-Corruption Court issued on February 27, 2025, and has adopted a substitute judicial act, imposing the obligation to initiate criminal proceedings on the public participant of the proceedings.

The appellate court noted that the information submitted concerning “Ji Koder” LLC constituted a proper report, also highlighting the following:

• “According to the report concerning 'Ji Koder' LLC, on the day of his appointment to the position of Deputy Minister of Finance (transitioning to public service) on August 18, 2021, Vahe Hovhannisyan received a 1,000,000 USD interest-free loan and a 50,000 USD donation and purchased 100% of the shares of 'Caritas Italiana' LLC (since, according to the charter, Alla Avoyan had been the director of 'Caritas', it is presumed that he purchased exactly its 100% shares). According to the 2021 declaration, the share in 'Caritas Italiana' LLC belongs to Vahe Hovhannisyan:
• “On January 10, 2022, 'Caritas Italiana' LLC was reorganized, and after the reorganization, the company became 'Ji Koder' LLC. Moreover, in Vahe Hovhannisyan's declaration of the same year, it states that by the end of the year, the share was still valued at 1,050,000 USD. In the 2023 declaration, those shares 'disappear':”
• The company was fully owned by Rubik Armenaki Karapetyan after the reorganization, who, according to unverified data, appears to be the uncle of Vahe Hovhannisyan.

Furthermore, the Court of Appeals noted the loan of 52,614,000 AMD provided by Vahe Hovhannisyan to 'Ji Koder' LLC, the implementation of a 1.5 billion AMD tax exemption on imported goods for 'Ji Koder' LLC according to the Government Decision No. 1942-A dated November 9, 2023, and other circumstances.

The appellate court concluded that “.. the report presented in this case regarding 'Ji Koder' LLC contains substantive information about an apparent crime, and therefore, the procedural act of refusal to initiate criminal proceedings by the Deputy Head of the Second Investigative Division of the Anti-Corruption Committee, B. Chilingaryan, did not properly analyze and legally assess the content of the report submitted by Ara Zohrapyan..”