YEREVAN, DECEMBER 5, ARMENPRESS.  Criminal charges have been pressed against president of "Flash" LLC Barsegh Beglaryan for inducing embezzlement of particularly large amount of money from the state, ARMENPRESS reports 1lurer.am website informs, citing the Special Investigation Service.

1lurer.am also informs that Barseghyan has been invited to interrogation. He told the news outlet that he rules out that former President Serzh Sargsyan could have any personal interests for chosing his company as the supplier of the diesel fuel.

 In the sidelines of the preliminary investigation of a criminal case, the Special Investigation Service of Armenia pressed charges against former President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan for organizing embezzlement of particularly large amounts of money (489 million AMD) by other officials through misuse of official position in the period of January 25 to February 7 of 2013,

According to the charges, on January 24, 2013 the Government of Armenia confirmed the state assistance program for providing farmers with cheap diesel fuel. A number of companies, including “Maxhur” and “Flash” companies, expressed readiness to provide the fuel.

The officials of the Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia decided to introduce “Maxhur”, which presented the cheapest price for the fuel, for the confirmation of the Cabinet.

Serzh Sargsyan, being aware of the cheaper offer for the supply, demanded a number of officials to choose “Flash” company as the supplier of the fuel, ensuring personal profits for himself.

As a result, the Government paid over 1.2 billion AMD to “Flash” company as a subsidy, while it would pay only 846 million AMD to “Maxhur”, thus inflicting to the state financial damage of over 480 million AMD.

Signature on not leaving the country has been chosen as a preventive measure for Serzh Sargsyan.

Edited and translated by Tigran Sirekanyan