The General Prosecutor’s Office carried out a comparative analysis in order to reveal the criminal abuses registered in the processes of leasing, subleasing and alienation of community-owned state-owned real estate, carried out on the instructions of the RA Prosecutor General, and to give a criminal assessment to the work carried out in the period from 1 January, 2019 to 30 June, 2020.

The Prosecutor General’s Office informed.

Accordingly, if in the 2019, a total of 75 criminal cases were initiated on apparent abuses registered in the process of leasing, subleasing, alienation of community-owned state-owned real estate, then only in the first half of 2020 – 108 criminal cases, or more than for 33.3% compared to the whole 2019.

Out of the total of 183 criminal cases initiated during the mentioned period, 105 referred to abuses registered in the process of real estate alienation, and 78 – to lease or sublease.

Studies show that as a schematic criminal manifestation, the sale of property subject to alienation through auctions or tenders was more common. In particular, the tenders or auctions were of a formal nature, the second participant of the tender or auction participated in the tender to ensure the victory of the pre-determined participant.

The investigation found out cases when the person who submitted a bid as a second bidder in public bidding did not actually participate in the tender or auction, or even did not have information about his participation in public bidding. In order to ensure their victory, the other interested participant submitted documents related to acquaintances or relatives, registering them as the second applicant.

In addition, there have been cases where citizens who have acquired land by auction have been in close contact with leading officials in the region, including the auctioneer (community leader, governor, etc.). And the given lands were bought according to the data of those citizens, but their real owners were high-ranking state officials.

There were also illegalities in the criminal scheme, when the lands of the community’s targets in the personal interest of the head of community (mayor) were changed to agricultural lands with the direct participation of the head of the RA Cadastre Department, without any legal basis, as a result of which they were alienated (for example, in one case, instead of 453,949,600 AMD, the land was alienated for 712,400 AMD).

In addition to the mentioned criminal schemes, there were cases when the state-owned land was alienated by auction as community property, or the renovated residential house building, for example, was presented as a dilapidated building; Lands not included in the list of restrictions provided for in Article 60 of the Land Code, lands not transferred to the ownership of legal entities, without a professional conclusion on the degree of emergency of the building, subject to dismantling or any other document, for example, AMD 341,656,650 the administrative building with cadastral value, but it is unjustifiably considered as a structure subject to dismantling, the value of 80,000,000 AMD was deducted from the value of the land plot, calculated for the dismantling costs. A market value assessment report was prepared with significant violations of the requirements of the standards in force in the Republic of Armenia For example, the area previously allocated to one of Yerevan’s schools was reduced by about 3,000 square meters, alienated to a citizen at auction, who shortly afterwards divided the land into two parts and sold it to the son of the school director, and a relative of the official.

During the mentioned 1.5 years (mainly in the first half of 2020) during the investigation of cases under the jurisdiction of the competent authorities of the Republic of Armenia, 33 lease agreements for lease of community or state property, made in violation of the legislation, were terminated in most cases new legal relations.

The results of the work carried out in the criminal cases investigated in the cases of the mentioned crimes will be presented in the near future, as well as in the works carried out in the direction of restoring the damages caused to the state and the communities.