The preliminary investigation carried out under the criminal proceedings investigated by the Anti-Corruption Committee of the Republic of Armenia established that A.S., who held the position of head of the State Property Department under the Government of the Republic of Armenia, abusing his official powers, in violation of the procedure established by law, alienated state real estate at market value of about AMD 178 million to the organization founded in the name of a person interconnected with him.
In particular, the preliminary investigation established that in 2013, “Kids Care” limited liability company was founded, the shareholders of which were persons interconnected with the above-mentioned official A.S. and his close people, including L.G., the security guard of the kindergarten headed by A.S.’s wife. The latter, on June 26, 2013, submitted an application to A.S. asking to expropriate the buildings of the former public school, located at 5, Nersisyan St., Yerevan, to the said company.
Based on the application of L.G. and organized by A.S. two school buildings with a total area of 1063.25 sq.m. and the land plot they occupied with an area of 0.303439 hectares were separated from the above-mentioned real estate, to which the ownership right the Republic of Armenia was registered on August 7, 2013 by the RA Cadastre Committee.
Prior to this, starting 2012, the department headed by A.S. developed and presented as a legislative initiative the draft RA Law “On State Property Management”, which was adopted by the National Assembly in 2014. In accordance with the mentioned law, direct sale was also defined as a method of expropriation of state property, conditioning it solely on the presence of a previously known buyer or lessee of the property who presented a business (investment) plan. Meanwhile, ignoring the aforementioned provisions defining the legality of expropriation of state property in a direct way, under the conditions of never being a lessee of the property expropriated by Kids Care LLC, as well as in the absence of a business (investment) plan, based on group interests determined by relations with the beneficiaries of the company, A.S., since 2014, developed and at the meeting of the RA Government held on February 12, 2015, in his report he discussed the draft decision of the RA Government “On the Expropriation of State Property”, proposing to allow the expropriation of property located at 5 Nersisyan Street, Yerevan, through the direct sale to Kids Care LLC on preferential terms without grounds in the project.
Moreover, during the presentation of the project at the same government meeting, in order not to raise possible doubts among the meeting participants regarding the legality of the expropriation of property and to finally complete his criminal intent, A.S. verbally presented distorted data on the content of the relevant Article of the RA Law “On State Property Management” and stated that in the case of expropriation of property through direct sale, an investment plan is not required, as a result of which the presented project was approved and adopted.
As a result of the above, real estate with an estimated market value of AMD 177,539,790, not subject to direct sale, based on the decision of the RA Government adopted on February 12, 2015, was alienated to Kids Care LLC, which subsequently alienated it for AMD 240,000,000.
Thus, A.S., in violation of the procedure established by law, alienated the specified real estate through the direct sale to an organization created in the name of persons interconnected with him, as a result of which state-owned property with a market value of AMD 177,539,790 was withdrawn from the state property fund.
During the preliminary investigation, A.S. was charged under Article 308, Part 2 of the former Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. The latter pleaded fully guilty to the charges and fully compensated the damage caused to the state.
The preliminary investigation of the criminal proceedings has been completed, the materials of the proceedings have been sent to the court with an indictment for consideration on the merits.
Notification. the person accused of a crime is considered innocent until his guilt is proven in accordance with the procedure established by the RA Criminal Procedure Code by a verdict entered into legal force.
