Tsarukyan, former Multi Group CEO charged in $2.5 million extortion case

Armenia's Investigative Committee has announced that it has uncovered a case involving the alleged extortion of property worth $2.5 million and money laundering by businessman and Prosperous Armenia Party leader Gagik Tsarukyan and Sedrak Arustamyan, the former CEO of Tsarukyan-owned Multi Group Concern.

Both Tsarukyan and Arustamyan are already being held in pre-trial detention in a separate, unrelated criminal case.

According to the Investigative Committee, the new case concerns allegations that Tsarukyan and Arustamyan extorted a Lebanese-Armenian businessman's 50% stake in a jointly owned company, valued at $2.5 million, by threatening violence in 2010. Investigators also allege that the two later concealed the criminal origin of the assets through transactions involving affiliated companies, amounting to money laundering on an especially large scale. Based on the evidence, both men have been charged with extortion on an especially large scale and money laundering.