On 15 March, 2023, the Prosecutor made a new decision to initiate criminal prosecution against A. H., who served in the Ministry of Defense in 1997-2011, and who held the position of Deputy Head of the 4th Department and Head of the 5th Department of the General Department on Combating Organized Crime in 2011-2018.

The General Prosecutor’s Office reported.

We are talking about Arshak Hakobyan, the Head of the bodyguard of former Head of Police Vladimir Gasparyan.

According to the criminal proceedings examined by the Anti-Corruption Committee, it was proved that A.H., being an official performing public service during the years 1994-2018, illegally participated in business activities, as well as engaged in other corrupt activities, as a result of which in order to laundering the property and income obtained by the criminal way, to put it into legal civil circulation, he hid and distorted the real nature, criminal origin and ownership of the acquired properties and paid money, giving them a legal form.

In particular, during the years 2008-2010, A.H. acquired 100% of the share of “Urbanism-Petrol” LLC and, legally registering it, in the name of his wife, who had not previously carried out entrepreneurial activity in any field and in the name of his 9-year-old son, who was a minor at that time, actually participated in the management of the Company through them. As a result of that activity, as well as in circumstances not yet clarified by the criminal proceedings, as a result of other allegedly illegal activities (there is an obvious discrepancy between the legal income and property status of A.H. and his family members), In order to hide and distort the true nature and criminal origin of the money, in 2011, A.H. acquired the real estate worth 75 million AMD in the 2nd industrial district of Abovyan, Kotayk region (ownership right of his wife was registered), in 2012, acquired the immovable property worth120 million AMD, located on Amiryan Street in Yerevan  (ownership right of his wife was registered), in 2013 acquired the immovable property worth 204 million 250 thousand AMD,  located on Hanrapetutyan Street in Yerevan (his and his wife’s ownership right was registered), and in 2014, acquired with 144 million 375 thousand AMD the 100% share of “OVSAS” LLC (the 207.9 square meter area located on Moskovyan street, Yerevan city registered in the name of the company, his daughter’s ownership right was registered).

Realizing that in the presence of low legal incomes, properties with a value significantly exceeding the legal incomes are registered in his and his wife’s name (which can become a reason and object of investigation by the competent authorities) in order to hide their true nature and source of origin, in 2014, A.H. started to hide the rights to the properties acquired through criminal means and their real ownership by alienating them to relatives with formal contracts of donation and sale.

Thus, according to the data obtained during the preliminary investigation, it was substantiated that A.H. carried out the laundering of particularly large sums obtained through criminal ways: 351 million 497 thousand 422 AMD and real estate worth 75 million AMD.

In addition, A.H., who actually performed the functions of the head of the security service of the former Chief of the RA Police V.G., in 2013-2014, as part of a group with the Chief of the RA Police V.G., with a prior agreement, he carried out laundering of the property purchased by the latter with particularly large amounts of money obtained by criminal means, hiding and distorting the source of origin, rights and ownership of the property.

In particular, V.G., who during 1982-2018 held the positions of the Head of Sevan, Armavir Departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Deputy Minister of Internal affairs, Chief of the Military Police of the Ministry of Defense, Deputy Minister of Defense, and then the Chief of Police, during the years 2008-2018, he owned, used, and managed a particularly large amount of money received as a result of the crimes he committed during the period of the 2000-2018. V.G., who holds the position of RA Chief of Police, being a high-ranking official with the duty to submit a declaration, in 2013, in order to avoid the attention of law enforcement authorities and possible liability in case of declaring valuable property in his name, he turned to A.H., who actually performs the functions of the head of his security service, to assist in hiding the origin of part of the property obtained through criminal means, instructing the latter to purchase vehicles from “Avangard Motors” LLC and register them in A.H.’s name.

Based on the mentioned assignment, on 1 September, 2013, A.H. purchased a “Mercedes-Benz G 500” car from “Avangard Motors” LLC with AMD 71 million 556 thousand provided by V.G., and on 10 January, 2014, purchased a “Mercedes-Benz S 500L” car from the same company with AMD 80,200,000 again provided  by V.G., registering it in A.H.’s name.

Thus, according to the data obtained during the preliminary investigation, it was verified that A.H., with the prior agreement and in the group with the former Head of the Police V.G., hid and misrepresented the property of value in particularly large sums totaling to 151 million 756 thousand AMD, obtained as a result of the latter’s criminal activities by laundering that property obtained through criminal means.

In addition, A.H., having the obligation to submit an annual declaration of assets and income from 1 July, 2017, in the annual declaration submitted to the Commission on Ethics of RA High-Ranking Officials on 22 March, 2018, deliberately hid and did not include the loan amount of 100,000 USD provided to him by one of the banks on 23 August, 2017, which led to the non-declaration of the specified particularly large property.

Based on the above, by the decision of the supervising prosecutor, a new criminal prosecution was initiated against A.H. under Article 190, Part 3, Clause 1 (2 episodes, Money Laundering) and Part 2 of Article 314.3 of the RA Criminal Code adopted on 18.04.2003 (hiding the data to be declared).

The investigator conducting the proceedings, as a result of the evaluation of the evidence collected in the judicial proceedings, came to the conclusion that it is highly probable that the latter will be convicted by the competent court for the crime attributed, and announced the end of the preliminary investigation.

Let us remind that by the decision of the RA Court of Cassation on 23 December, 2022, the cassation appeal brought by the Prosecutor General of the Republic of Armenia was satisfied, the application of an alternative measure (measures) of restrain against A.H. was recognized as insufficient, as a result of which A.H. was detained (is still in custody).