Criminal charges pressed against former minister for bribery and money laundering

YEREVAN, JANUARY 17, ARMENPRESS. The Special Investigation Service (SIS) of Armenia has pressed charges against former minister of nature protection of Armenia Aram Harutyunyan based on the sufficient evidence obtained during the preliminary investigation of the criminal case of receiving bribe of particularly large amount.

As ARMENPRESS was informed from the press service of the SIS, Aram Harutyunyan, being a high ranking official, received bribe of particularly large amount through other people.

According to the indictment, in 2007 Aram Harutyunyan provided mining licenses and allowed to carry out mine exploitation to a businessman and received particularly large amount of bribe for that, 4.2 billion AMD or 14 million USD at that time.

In order to hide the criminal source of the money, Harutyunyan transferred the money to a Swiss bank account of an international organization and then started to transfer the money to a bank account of a person in close relations with him engaged in some business activities in Armenia.

Manhunt is declared for Aram Harutyunyan.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan