Ex-deputy PM Armen Gevorgyan charged with money laundering

YEREVAN, MAY 20, ARMENPRESS. The Special Investigations Service (SIS) has charged Former Deputy Prime Minister Armen Gevorgyan with money laundering.

The indictment states that Gevorgyan allegedly used his official position from 2004-2018 to launder 4,921,302,379 drams in revenue. According to the Special Investigations Service, Gevorgyan and the persons affiliated with him had a total of 743,458,821 drams in legal income from 2002-2018, while in the same period of time 39 real estate properties worth many times more than the figure was registered by their names.

Gevorgyan is accused in abusing his powers to influence several mayors into holding illegal auctions and alienating municipality-owned land to the persons affiliated with him.

The said real estate properties were sold for 751,268,208 drams, whereas the market value was more than 4,843,530,000, while 10 other properties in the Czech Republic owned by Gevorgyan’s affiliated persons were valued at 391,920,000 drams, the SIS said.

Gevorgyan denies wrongdoing.

Editing and Translating by Stepan Kocharyan