A number of suspicious transactions were concluded in connection with the real estate located at 14 Aivazovsky street (3.45 ha plot and 9300 square meters of auxiliary buildings). At different times, persons or companies, who in one way or another are related to Mihran Poghosyan, a former deputy of the National Assembly, who held the position of Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer, acted as buyers of the property. Those transactions were concluded during the years of Mihran Poghosyan’s tenure at the Compulsory Enforcement Service.

The property located at 14 Aivazovsky Street originally belonged to Armen Stamboltsyan, who mortgaged the property on 27.01.2007 in favor of “New House” LLC to ensure the fulfillment of the latter’s credit obligations. From here a range of many dubious property transactions started.

Part 1. Compulsory electronic auctions of real estate at 14 Aivazovsky Street

“Nor Tun” LLC failed to fulfill its loan obligations, and the mortgaged property was put up for auction.

In response to the written request of Iravaban.net, the Compulsory Enforcement Service reported that the property located at 14 Aivazovsky Street was submitted for compulsory electronic auction 70 times. The first auction was announced on 26.09.2011. The initial price of the lot was AMD 782,587,500. During the auctions, 3 persons had intentions to become buyers, and all of them were in different ways related to the former head of the Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer, Mihran Poghosyan. The last buyer was Ara Hakobyan, who bought the property for only AMD 5,423,472.

Part 2. Persons related to Mihran Poghosyan, buyers of the premises

Buyer one. On 22.04.2014, “Melatropic” LLC was recognized the winner of the 18th auction announced by the Compulsory Enforcement Service for the sale of areas of 14 Aivazovsky. The company paid AMD 199,023,300 for the area.

Iravaban.net already had an occasion to refer to “Melatropic” LLC years ago.

“Melatropic” LLC was founded on 13.11.2012. Melita Ghazaryan was the sole owner of the company during the period from 03.11.2012 to 20.06.2019. She has stated in the work experience section of on her LinkedIn page that from 2006 till now she holds the position of the Head of Trade department of “Catherine Group” LLC, affiliated with Mihran Poghosyan.

It turns out that on 22.04.2014, when “Melatropic” LLC participated in the auction announced by the Compulsory Enforcement Service, the owner of the Company also worked in “Catherine Group”.

On 30.04.2014, days after paying the specified amount for the property at 14 Aivazovsky Street, Melita Ghazaryan submitted an application to the Chief Enforcement Officer Mihran Poghosyan, stating that she is requesting to return the entire amount paid for the property, as it was found that the information specified in the description of the property was not corresponding to reality, which is why “Melatropic” JSC intends to refuse to buy the property.

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Buyer two. On 16 September, 2014, “Edshin” LLC participated in the 27th auction announced for the purchase of the area at 14 Aivazovsky Street and was declared the winner. The purchase price of the property was AMD 85,729,940. As a result of the auction, a sales contract was signed with “Edshin” LLC. After some time, on 12.03.2015, the Company submitted an application to the Chief Enforcement Officer, Mihran Poghosyan, with which it demanded the money back, because the Company was not aware of the obligation to pay the cadastral value of the property.

Attorney Norayr Harutyunyan, who is also related to Mihran Poghosyan, was the person authorized by “Edshin” LLC. In the data on Norayr Harutyunyan on the official website of the Chamber of Advocates, the address Rubinyants 29/6 is mentioned as the business address, where “Catherine” LLC was operating. In addition, there were cases when Norayr Harutyunyan defended the interests of Mihran Poghosyan himself, for example, in 2021, the Central Election Commission declared invalid registration of MP candidate Mihran Poghosyan of the “With Honor” Alliance participating in the RA NA extraordinary elections. At that time, Norayr Harutyunyan was Poghosyan’s authorized person, and he had applied to the Passport and Visa Department of the RA Police to obtain a certificate of Poghosyan’s permanent residence in the RA territory.

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Buyer three. Ara Hakobyan was declared the winner during the 70th auction announced by Compulsory Enforcement Service for the sale of the property at 14 Aivazovsky Street on 26.12.2016. The purchase price of the property was AMD 5,423,472.

Ara Hakobyan’s name is also connected with Mihran Poghosyan, because Ara Hakobyan has been the director of “Kecharis Hotel” LLC since 05.07.2018. The 100 percent shareholder of “Kecharis Hotel” LLC is Eduard Harutyunyan, who is the director of “Best Realty” LLC as well.

These two companies (“Best Realty” LLC and “Kecharis Hotel” LLC) are related to Mihran Poghosyan.  In 2019, according to the data reported by the Special Investigation Service, in 2011, Mihran Poghosyan founded Hopkinten Trading Incorporated and Sigtem Real Estate Incorporated in the Republic of Panama through foreign citizens, and in October of the same year, instead of foreign directors of companies with Poghosyan’s direct participation, close people of Mihran Poghosyan were appointed. Further, Mihran Poghosyan, , participated in the management of the aforementioned organizations registered in the offshore zone of Panama through proxies, as a result of which the latter founded other companies in Armenia, including “Best Realty” LLC. 

In 2017, Ara Hakobyan applied to the RA Cadastre Committee for the registration of his ownership rights to the property at 14 Aivazovsky Street, but the registration procedure was suspended on a number of grounds, the most important of which was the fact of not paying the cadastral value of the plot (about 100 million AMD) to the Yerevan municipal budget. Ara Hakobyan’s ownership right to the property has not been registered.

Part 3.  Armen Stamboltsyan’s Bankruptcy

Since Ara Hakobyan’s ownership right to the property was never registered, Armen Stamboltsyan continued to be the owner of the property. He accumulated land tax and property tax debts related to the property, the sum of which was 10,742,840 AMD, including fines. In order to confiscate this amount, Yerevan Municipality initiated the bankruptcy proceedings of Armen Stamboltsyan, which proceeded simultaneously with the electronic auction process described above.

On 02.09.2014, the Yerevan Community, represented by the Head of the Erebuni Administrative District, submitted an application to the court with the demand to declare Armen Stamboltsyan bankrupt. Armen Stamboltsyan was declared bankrupt by the court decision of 24.11.2014.

Since Ara Hakobyan never registered his ownership rights to the area at 14 Aivazovsky Street, Armen Stamboltsyan remained the owner of the area, and the property was included in the composition of the debtor’s (Armen Stamboltsyan’s) property in the bankruptcy proceedings. As a result, the same property was again auctioned, this time within the bankruptcy proceedings of Armen Stamboltsyan.

Part 4. “ArnDane” LLC is the new owner of the area

On 12.12.2018, “ArnDane” LLC was declared the winner in the auction organized by the bankruptcy administrator Hovhannes Soghomonyan. The Company paid 272,124,151drams for the area to the account of the bankruptcy administrator, and then paid the cadastral value of the land in the amount of 103,682,000 drams to the municipal budget of Yerevan (this means that, the total price of the property was 375,806,151 drams).

“ArnDane” Company operates in the immediate vicinity of 14 Aivazovsky Street. According to the information on the Company’s official website, the Company has been working in the agricultural sector for 10 years. According to the official website of the Tax Service, “ArnDane” Company is on the 113th place in the taxpayers list.

After paying the cadastral value of the property, “ArnDane” Company applied to the RA Cadastre Committee and registered its ownership right to the property on 10.12.2021. Thus, “ArnDane” Company was the only buyer whose property right was registered in the cadastre.

Part 5. New lawsuits that continue to date

Dissatisfied with such a result, and considering that he is the real owner of the property at 14 Aivazovsky Street, Ara Hakobyan filed several lawsuits in RA courts.

Claim one (administrative court). On 14.12.2021, Ara Hakobyan filed a lawsuit against the Cadastre Committee. Ara Hakobyan demands to invalidate the property right of “ArnDane” Company registered on 10.12.2021 and oblige the Cadastre Committee to register Ara Hakobyan’s property right to the property. The judge in the case is Yelena Arakelyan.

Claim two (civil court): On 29.12.2021, Ara Hakobyan filed a lawsuit against Armen Stamboltsyan’s case bankruptcy administrator Hovhannes Soghomonyan and “ArnDane” Company, demanding that the auction of 28.12.2018 of the property at 14 Aivazovsky address be declared invalid, and based on that, “ArnDane” Company’s ownership of property be declared invalid. The judge in the case is Sergey Sahakyan.

Claim three (civil court): On 20.12.2021, Ara Hakobyan filed a lawsuit against debtor Armen Stamboltsyan’s case bankruptcy administrator Hovhannes Soghomonyan and “ArnDane” Company, demanding that the auction of 28.12.2018 of the property at 14 Aivazovsky address be declared invalid, and based on that, “ArnDane” Company’s ownership of property be declared invalid as well. Yerem Yesoyan is the judge in the case.

These three lawsuits are pending.

In a conversation with Iravaban.net, the lawyer of “ArnDane” Company, Nerses Aghababyan, stated that Ara Hakobyan’s demands are groundless. “The logic of the claims presented by Mr. Hakobyan is that despite the fact that he has not paid the cadastral value of the land since 2017, now when “ArnDane” has paid the cadastral value, the right to the property should be registered not to “ArnDane “, but to Ara Hakobyan… Yes, yes, you understood correctly, “ArnDane” has paid, but the right must come to Ara Hakobyan. We have been suffering from such absurd demands for a year, and the administrative court has imposed restrictions on the property, and the Company has not been able to do anything about it for more than 1 year. The Land Code clearly states that the responsibility to pay the cadastral value lies with the acquirer of the property, and in this case there was only one real acquirer, “ArnDane”. I would like to add one more thing as well: the notary made handwritten changes in the sales contract signed by Ara Hakobyan, he added areas of the property, etc., and these changes are null and void.”

We also learned from Nerses Aghababyan that a criminal case No. 10894920 was initiated on 21.12.2020 on the basis of Article 196 of the RA Criminal Code, in connection with the auction of 26.12.2016, where Ara Hakobyan won:  but the case is not moving forward for unknown reasons. We also received the scanned version of the sales contract signed by Ara Hakobyan on 09.01.2017 from lawyer Aghababyan.

Part 6: Armen Stamboltsyan’s bankruptcy case is still ongoing

Armen Stamboltsyan’s lawyer, Karo Asatryan, also mentioned in a conversation with Iravaban.net that the bankruptcy case has not been completed to date, and the only reason for this is Ara Hakobyan’s procedural abuses.

“Let’s put aside the fact that Ara Hakobyan became a claimant in the bankruptcy proceedings on the basis of a dubious cession, I won’t go into that, but the bankruptcy process has a simple logic. The only interest of the person who has become a claimant is the satisfaction of his claim. Ara Hakobyan’s claim received by cession was satisfied at the expense of the sale price of the property at 14 Aivazovsky Street (it is about the sale of the property to “ArnDane”, ed.), but Mr. Hakobyan remained dissatisfied and is bringing cassation appeals. There is intent to harm us at any cost, and appropriate multi-million property for 5 million drams. Those 5 million drams, by the way, were paid to the cash box of the Compulsory Enforcement Service on time, and we do not even know what happened to that money,” Karo Asatryan concluded.

Iravaban.net will continue to follow the developments related to the property at 14 Aivazovsky Street. 

Alisa Chilingaryan