Armenian Prosecutor General presents country’s experience in confiscation of illicit assets at anti-corruption council meeting

Armenian Prosecutor General Anna Vardapetyan took part online in the 11th meeting of the Interstate Council for Countering Corruption on September 17.

This year’s meeting was hosted by Belarus. The Council’s 10th anniversary meeting was held in Yerevan in 2025, after which the Prosecutor General’s Office of Armenia assumed the chairmanship of the Council.

The Interstate Council for Countering Corruption comprises the prosecutors general of Armenia, Russia, Belarus and Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan’s National Security Committee, the Director of Uzbekistan’s Anti-Corruption Agency and the Director of Tajikistan’s Agency for State Financial Control and Combating Corruption.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Vardapetyan welcomed the heads of delegations attending the meeting and expressed confidence that it would provide another opportunity to discuss current issues, exchange practical experience and identify areas for further cooperation.

Under the third item on the agenda, the Prosecutor General presented the progress made in Armenia in combating corruption-related crimes, the main areas of work, the results of preliminary investigations and court proceedings, as well as efforts to recover losses caused to the state by such crimes.

Vardapetyan said Armenia had recorded a decline in the overall number of corruption-related crimes for the second consecutive year. A total of 1,368 such crimes were recorded in 2023, falling to 1,116 in 2024 and 996 in 2025. This represents a decline of more than a quarter over two years.

At the same time, she stressed that the effectiveness of the fight against corruption cannot be assessed solely on the basis of the number of crimes recorded. She said the quality of investigations, the number of proceedings sent to court and judicial decisions issued, as well as the recovery of losses caused to the state, were also important factors.

In 2025, 311 criminal proceedings involving 772 people were sent to court over corruption-related offences, compared with 217 proceedings involving 493 people in 2024. Courts also completed 157 corruption-related criminal cases involving 282 people in 2025, with 193 people convicted in 107 of those cases.

Vardapetyan also highlighted the development of modern mechanisms for detecting corruption-related crimes. In this context, she emphasised the importance of the Unified Electronic Whistleblowing Platform, azdararir.am, which received 600 reports in 2025, compared with 380 in 2024.

The Prosecutor General also presented work carried out to address the property-related consequences of corruption offences. In 2025, around AMD 1.643 billion in losses was recovered in criminal proceedings investigated and completed by the Anti-Corruption Committee.

At the same time, as a result of work carried out by the Prosecutor General’s Office to protect state and community interests, ownership rights over, or actual possession of, 124 properties with a total value of around AMD 66.934 billion were restored to the state or communities on the basis of court decisions, settlement agreements and prosecutorial measures.

Vardapetyan said corruption was increasingly taking the form of complex, multi-layered property schemes involving real estate, related persons, business activities and money laundering. In this context, she stressed the particular importance of financial investigations, establishing the origin of assets and funds, and identifying ultimate beneficial owners.

Under the fourth item on the agenda, the Prosecutor General presented Armenia’s experience in the confiscation of assets of illicit origin, addressing both the establishment of the mechanism and the initial results of its application.

Presenting the practical results, Vardapetyan said the first court decision on the confiscation of assets of illicit origin entered into legal force in 2025, resulting in property worth around $750,000 being transferred into the ownership of the Republic of Armenia. A second court decision entered into legal force on April 15, 2026.

As of September 2026, 175 claims concerning the confiscation of assets of illicit origin were being considered by the courts, with a total value of around AMD 629.5 billion, or approximately $1.7 billion.

At the same time, as of September 1, 2026, 11 settlement agreements had been concluded under the mechanism, resulting in movable and immovable property, as well as funds, with a total value of around AMD 5.5 billion, or approximately $15 million, being confiscated in favour of the Republic of Armenia.

The Prosecutor General stressed that the aim of modern anti-corruption policy was not only to hold those who commit corruption-related crimes criminally liable, but also to deprive them of the economic proceeds of illegal activity and recover losses caused to the state or communities.

Vardapetyan emphasised the importance of expanding international cooperation, noting that the international nature of modern financial flows makes it practically impossible to apply such instruments effectively solely within national jurisdictions.

“Therefore, the further development of this mechanism is inevitably linked to expanding international cooperation, exchanging information, recognising and enforcing foreign court decisions, as well as identifying and tracing assets located outside national territory,” the Armenian Prosecutor General concluded.