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The Prosecutor General’s Office indicted Armenia’s second President Robert Kocharyan on three counts of abuse of official powers, two counts of accepting a particularly large bribe, and four counts of particularly large-scale money laundering.
The Prosecutor General’s Office also indicted nine other people, including Kocharyan’s son Sedrak, former President and former Defense Minister Serzh Sargsyan, former Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan, former Yerevan Mayor Gagik Beglaryan, Local Developers LLC shareholder Samvel Mayrapetyan, as well as A. O., who served as director of the Kond Mansions Administration and headed Ayghedzor LLC, his wife and two daughters.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the criminal proceedings investigated by the Anti-Corruption Committee established that Robert Kocharyan, while serving as president from 1998 to 2008, acted in concert with several individuals and, driven by personal and private interests, used his official powers to transfer state-owned property of particularly large value to himself and persons and companies affiliated with him on favorable terms, including at prices significantly below market value and without public tenders. The investigation also established that steps were taken to conceal the criminal origin of the property and give its acquisition an appearance of legality.
The investigation alleges that the scheme involved the acquisition of a number of valuable state-owned properties at prices significantly below market value and without public tenders. These included 8.3218 hectares of land near Acharyan and Tsarav Aghbyur streets in Yerevan, a 2-hectare plot on the left side of the Cascade complex, property at 8 Paronyan Street, the Kaputak Sevan resort complex, and a 29,033-square-meter plot with a 1,705-square-meter building at 7/1 Tsitsernakaberd Highway, where the Orange Fitness premium club was later built. The investigation says the properties were transferred to companies affiliated with Kocharyan and people close to him through direct sales, leases, exchanges and other transactions.
The investigation further alleges that 50% stakes in companies owning some of the properties were later transferred to Kocharyan’s son Sedrak, including through donations and sham sale and purchase agreements. It also alleges that 56 real estate properties worth AMD 2,633,934,832 were transferred to Kocharyan in connection with the transfer of the Officers’ House building and an unfinished building on Nalbandyan Street to Piazza Grande.
In another episode, investigators allege that a 30% stake in Toyota Yerevan was registered in Sedrak Kocharyan’s name as a particularly large bribe, in exchange for Kocharyan ensuring the sale of state-owned land to companies connected with the Toyota project at significantly below-market prices.