On 4 August, the preliminary hearings in the case of the request for confiscation of property of illicit origin from the former Minister of Defense, Member of National Assembly Seyran Ohanyan, his wife Ruzanna Khachatryan, Anna Badalyan, Jacques-Pierre Fovoy, Benyamin Ghalechyan, Marine Nerseyan,  as well as the involved third parties “Araratbank” OJSC and Karine Margaryan took place.

According to Iravaban.net, at the beginning of the session, the plaintiff’s representative, Senior Prosecutor of the Department for Confiscation of Property of Illicit Origin of the Prosecutor General’s Office, Gevorg Kocharyan, petitioned to postpone the court session.

The plaintiff involved the daughter of Ruzanna Khachatryan’s sister, Anna Badalyan, as a defendant in the case and filed a demand for confiscation of property. The Prosecutor’s Office considers Seyran Ohanyan to be the beneficial owner of the mentioned real estates. Before the beginning of the lawsuits, Anna Badalyan had alienated the immovable properties to Karine Margaryan, who was involved in the case as a third party. During that time, the General Prosecutor’s Office placed a ban on the properties and it was not possible to make any transactions in the Cadastre Committee. The prosecutor assumes that Anna Badalyan and Karine Margaryan initiated a court dispute in an artificial way in order to realize the intention of buying and selling, so that they could have a court act, through which Karine Margaryan would be able to register these real estates in her name.

During this court session, Gevorg Kocharyan announced that he is going to file an appeal in the coming week regarding the aforementioned court act. He asked the court to postpone the hearing on this basis. “We find that our position in this case depends on the outcome of that case.”

Karine Margaryan’s representative, Anahit Beglaryan, stated that her client is a bona fide acquirer. ” I cannot say for what reasons, the claimant side, is trying to delay this proceeding.”

Seyran Ohanyan’s representative Karen Mezhlumyan agreed with Anahit Beglaryan’s position and mentioned that it is necessary to proceed to the stage of distribution of the burden of proof.

Gevorg Kocharyan emphasized once again: in their opinion, there was an attempt to circumvent the measures of preliminary reservation of the claim applied by the court, which apparently succeeded, because the Court of the First Instance recognized Karine Margaryan as the owner of the mentioned properties.

The court, presided over by Judge Karapet Badalyan, decided to reject the submitted motion to postpone the session. Then Anahit Beglaryan presented Karine Margaryan’s written arguments regarding the mentioned case.

Gevorg Kocharyan asked several questions to the representative of the 3rd person. He was interested in the fact that the property was transferred to Karine Margaryan in September 2021, certain payments were made, but an agreement was reached on notarizing the transaction only in the spring of 2022. “What is the logic that the transactions of 1.3 million USD were signed in a simple written form, payments were made, but it was decided to start the notarization process only after 6-7 months?”

The Prosecutor also drew attention to the fact that most of the money has not been paid until today and should be paid by 2029.

Anahit Beglaryan said that she had not participated in the mentioned negotiations and could not give a clear answer. “In my opinion, the logic was that the transfers were made in parts and during that period there would already be the amount, in which case notarization would be possible.”

It should also be noted that one of the properties purchased by Karine Margaryan was mortgaged and the latter was obliged to repay the loan.

Gevorg Kocharyan wondered if the agreement was reached in September 2021, then what was the logic of making repayments for one of the properties from the spring of 2022, not after the agreement was reached. “In our opinion, the repayments of the loan started to be made by Karine Margaryan from the moment when this mechanism and scheme was developed.”

Anahit Beglaryan stated that she could not say why the money was first paid in person and then in the form of loan repayments. “It was between the parties, I did not participate in it.”

The Prosecutor was also interested in whether Karine Margaryan has kept payment receipts for real estate or not. Anahit Beglaryan, the representative of the 3rd party, stated that according to her information, the written documents signed between the parties were destroyed at the time of notarization.

Gevorg Kocharyan once again stated in court that the “dispute” between Karine Margaryan and Anna Badalyan was not a dispute. “This “dispute” was artificially created in order to bypass the applied injunctions, to register the properties in the name of Karine Margaryan, regardless of whether Margaryan is a bona fide or not bona fide acquirer.”

The Пrosecutor also mentioned that the change of the claim in the lawsuit depends on the examination of the application submitted by them in the Court of Appeal, анд the outcome of the case. He again requested to adjourn the session.

This time, Judge Karapet Badalyan satisfied the plaintiff’s petition, decided to postpone it and give the Prosecutor an opportunity to clarify the request.

The next court session will be held on 12 September.

It should be reminded that the Department for Confiscation of Property of Illicit Origin of the Prosecutor General’s Office submitted a request to the court. To confiscate in favor of the Republic of Armenia from Ohanyan and his related persons, in particular:

• 2 public areas in Yerevan, a private house in Vahagni district, as well as 1 means of transport, and in case of impossibility, their average market value, which is AMD 1,092,538,513 in total,
• AMD 477,473,907 as the balance of illegal funds, as well as AMD 600,762,179, which is not justified by the legal income of a person, is of illicit origin and cannot be confiscated based on Article 20, Part 4 of the Law on Confiscation of Property of Illicit Origin.

Yevgenya Hambardzumyan