On 23 January, the Anti-Corruption Court continued hearing on examination of the claim about the demand for the confiscation of the illegally obtained property of the wanted former Prosecutor General Gevorg Kostanyan, his former wife Lilit Kostanyan, Arman Galstyan, his wife Teresa Gevorgyan and the nephew of the former Prosecutor General Ara Kostanyan. The Presiding Judge is Lili Drmeyan.

According to Iravaban.net, the court allowed to take photos of the session only. The respondent objected to have it videotaped. To the presiding judge’s question, what is the reason, Gevorg Kostanyan’s lawyer Varazdat Asatryan said: “Frankly speaking, there is no reason.”

The representatives of the other respondents joined the objection.

Nelli Ter-Torosyan, the Prosecutor of the Department for Confiscation of Property of Illicit Origin of the General Prosecutor’s Office, said that she wants to submit a motion to change the basis and subject of the lawsuit.

Lili Drmeyan asked the Prosecutor not to publicize the name of the bank, the bank account number and the dates of the operations performed while submitting the petition.

Nelli Ter-Torosyan mentioned that about 7.6 million rubles (about 51.7 million AMD) and about 8.5 million rubles (about 57.5 million AMD) transfers, which, according to the Prosecutor’s Office, are completely illicit.

“They were aimed at the acquisition of 2 real estates. Since the immovable properties are located in the city of Khimki in the Russian Federation, the property is subject to confiscation or the cost of its acquisition, i.e. 109 million 346 thousand 380 drams, equivalent to 16 million 175 thousand 500 rubles. It should be noted that Arman Galstyan, who is Gevorg Kostanyan’s fellow student and friend, presented the power of attorney on behalf of Lilit Kostanyan. Galstyan is also the title owner of a private house in Jrvezh,” the Prosecutor noted.

In addition, in April 2018, Lilit Galstyan transferred 250,000 euros equivalent to 145,975,000 drams in cash to an account opened in Greece from funds unknown to the Prosecutor’s Office, the legal part of which was 23,287,000 drams. Nelly Ter-Torosyan reported that the wife of the former Prosecutor General bought apartments in Athens with the specified amount.

The representative of the plaintiff also mentioned that the above-mentioned properties are subject to confiscation not on the basis that their beneficial owner is Gevorg Kostanyan, but because they were acquired during the marriage. “Acquired property is joint property, and it is considered property belonging to a person.”

The Prosecutor also stated that the presented data is not new, as the Greek property was mentioned in the lawsuit submitted to the court, but the received documents were in the process of translation. “We did not receive data on the properties in the Russian Federation; we simply evaluated the data that was already available.”

Varazdat Asatryan, the representative of Gevorg Kostanyan, stated in the court that the motion refers to the property rights of the parties registered after the divorce, which the responding party will justify. According to the documents, Gevorg Kostanyan and Lilit Kostanyan were divorced on 9 October, 2018, but the data released by the Prosecutor’s Office indicate that their divorce was formal.

“It turned out that Gevorg and Lilit Kostanyan repeatedly crossed the border of Armenia at the same time and in the same direction. In addition, the latter are still registered at the same address. It is no coincidence that Lilit Kostanyan made the relevant transfers abroad after the divorce. The above proves that through divorce an attempt was made to hide the fact of running a joint economy and the beneficial owner of money transfers aimed at the acquisition of properties. The beneficial owner was Gevorg Kostanyan,” the Prosecutor said back in April, during the first session of the case.

Lili Drmeyan satisfied the presented petition with a protocol decision. The judge provided time to the defendant’s representative until 5 February to file a response to the amended complaint. The trial was postponed, the next session will be held on 9 February.

Yevgenya Hambardzumyan