Former Defense Ministry Official Charged with Property Theft

The Criminal Procedure initiated by the Anti-Corruption Committee of the Republic of Armenia has established that an individual who held the position of commander of Military Unit N of the RA Ministry of Defense acted intentionally to create a situation necessitating improvement of housing conditions. This individual carried out formal alienations of other real estate properties belonging to him and fraudulently embezzled an apartment handed over to him for gratuitous use by the order of the Minister of Defense.

In particular, the investigation revealed that the official of the Ministry of Defense, permanently residing in an apartment owned by himself and his wife, submitted misleading information to the Central Housing Commission of the Ministry of Defense on October 9, 2018, regarding housing assurance. Based on this information, the commission gave a positive conclusion on the issue of granting him a property located in Yerevan under gratuitous ownership.

As a result, in July 2019, an apartment valued at 21,400,000 AMD, registered under the balance sheet of the Ministry of Defense, was granted to this official under gratuitous ownership. He has been charged under Article 178, Part 3, Point 1 of the RA Criminal Code, adopted on April 18, 2003, and invalidated on July 1, 2022 (corresponding to Article 255, Part 3, Point 3 of the current RA Criminal Code). The investigation in the criminal case has been completed, and the materials have been forwarded to the Anti-Corruption Court of the Republic of Armenia with an accusatory conclusion.

Notice: The accused in the crime is presumed innocent until proven guilty under the established procedure of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia by a legally enforceable court decision.