Former Yerevan Municipality Official Charged

The Criminal Procedure conducted by the Anti-Corruption Committee of Armenia has established that a person who held the position of head of architecture and urban planning at the Yerevan municipality from 2010 to 2018 misused his official powers, committed official forgery, and legalized property obtained through criminal means in particularly large amounts.

Specifically, on September 16, 2013, the official organized a formal auction-sale of a land parcel measuring 0.0250 hectares located in the center of Yerevan, during which a fraudulent record was compiled, resulting in a close acquaintance of his, who did not actually participate in the auction, being recognized as the winner. Consequently, ownership rights were registered for this individual based on the concluded sales agreement.

Additionally, the preliminary investigation revealed that the said official organized an illegal process for expanding the mentioned land parcel, failing to record the presence of unauthorized construction on the transferred land and not carrying out the legalization process, thereby causing significant financial damage to the community. Furthermore, by abusing his official position, the official organized and coordinated the process of granting a construction permit for an apartment building constructed in violation of several urban planning norms on the aforementioned land parcel, including inserting false information into official documents.

Subsequently, the apartment building constructed in violation of urban planning norms, along with an adjacent plot of 0.0445 hectares, was gratuitously transferred to the mentioned official's family members in 2018 under a fictitious donation agreement. In this manner, the municipality official legalized property obtained through criminal means, totaling 140,108,050 AMD.

The former Yerevan municipality official has been charged under various articles of the former criminal code of Armenia, including Article 190, Parts 3 (points 1 and 3), which corresponds to Article 296, Parts 3 (points 2 and 3) of the criminal code adopted on May 5, 2021; Article 308, Part 2 (which corresponds to Article 441, Part 2, point 2 of the new code); and Article 314, Part 1 (which corresponds to Article 445, Part 1 of the new code). Charges have also been brought against two individuals who assisted in committing these offenses, including the son of the former municipal official. The three defendants are subject to combined preventive measures: home arrest, prohibition from leaving Armenia, and bail.

The preliminary investigation of the criminal case has concluded, and the materials of the case with an accusatory conclusion have been sent to the Anti-Corruption Court of Armenia.