On 23 August, 2023, the Prosecutor initiated a new public criminal prosecution against the former Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer, former Deputy of the National Assembly, Mihran Poghosyan. The Prosecutor General’s Office reports.
M.P. is accused of legalizing especially large amounts of property obtained through criminal means (money laundering), embezzlement of especially large amounts of entrusted property (five episodes), using official position to commit large amounts of waste, abuse of official powers (two episodes) and exceeding official powers.
In particular, M.P., occupying the position of chief enforcer of judicial acts of the RA since 11 June, 2008, on 12 September, 2008 appointed his bodyguard E.S. to the service for ensuring the enforcement of judicial acts of the Ministry of Justice (hereinafter (Service) as the first-class adviser to the operational division of enforcement, but instructed E.S. to ensure his personal security. As a result, in the years 2008-2016, E.S., not actually fulfilling the duties arising from the position of the first-class adviser of the operational department, on the instructions of M.P. received a salary of 22 million 117 thousand 820 drams and payments equal to it.
In another case, M.P. appointed his personal driver, H.B., to the position of Senior Advisor to the Service’s Operations Division on 3 November, 2009, but assigned H.B to ensure his personal security. As a result, in the years 2009-2016, H.B., not actually fulfilling the duties of the leading consultant of the operational department, received 21 million 754 thousand 643 drams of salary and equal payments on the instructions of M.P.
In addition, M.P. appointed his cousin, T.H., to various positions in the Service from 2 March, 2009 to 16 December, 2010. Due to the fact that he is a relative of the Chief Compulsory Enforcement Office, T.H. had a privileged status, he did not actually attend work, he did not fulfill his official duties, but he received 2 million 470 thousand 827 drams salary and payments equal to it
In another case, M.P., being informed that A.H. will actually perform the duties of the driver of H.T., who holds the position of RA Minister of Justice, proposed to appoint A.H. to a position in the Service, in order to get a higher salary, get a special title and a weapon. On 22 April, 2011, 15 January, 2012 and 8 January, 2013, M.P. signed employment contracts with A.H., hiring him as a security officer of the Service. Then, on 17 April, 2013, M.P. appointed A.H. to the position of the first-class consultant of the Division for Information Technologies Implementation and System Automation of the Service, by another order of the same day, he was sent to the operative department of enforcement. By order of 13 May 2013, A.H. was awarded the title of “Lieutenant of Justice”, By the order of 26 February, 2014, he was appointed to the position of enforcer of the Shengavit department of Yerevan city by the procedure of transfer, then, by the order of 28 February, 2014, he was again assigned to the operational department of enforcement. A.H. did not attend work during the above-mentioned period, but he received a salary of 5 million 712 thousand 550 drams and equal payments.
In addition, M.P. appointed his cousin G.H. to various positions in the Service. Due to the fact that he is a relative of the chief enforcer, G.H. had a privileged status, did not attend work, did not fulfill his official duties, but received a salary of 10 million 454 thousand 655 drams and payments equal to it.
In another case, during the years 2013-2015 and the first quarter of 2016, M.P. attached the 4 cars on the balance sheet of the Service to his security officers H.B., A.S., E.S. and A.I., and always used at least two of the above vehicles. As a result, during the period of 2013-2015 and the first quarter of 2016, the chief enforcement officer M.P. stole 40 million 746 thousand 500 drams from the funds of the state budget and the fund under the management of the Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer of the RA judicial acts for the four cars serving him.
In addition, while occupying the position of the Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer of the RA, M.P. participated in the management of “Catherine Group”, “Best Realty”, “Kecharis Hotel” and “Frutimax” LLCs carrying out business activities, which were related to with sponsoring those organizations by way of granting privileges and advantages in office.
Official person M.P., as a result of illegal participation in entrepreneurial activities, distort the real origin of the 1 million 190 thousand US dollars acquired as a result of the activities of the above companies, as well as the non-payment of particularly large amounts of taxes by the company “Catherine Group” LLC and other organizations affiliated with it in order to hide the source, and give them a legal appearance, by formulating them as a loan, he transferred them to the bank account of the “Catherine Group” LLC, which were used for the company’s current activities, including the repayment of credit obligations.
In addition, in 2013, M.P., abusing his official powers, in the conditions of holding an auction in violation of the established procedure, caused significant damage to the rights and legal interests of the claimant H.A. and R.H. In particular, 166 vehicles were sold in the auction at a low price, claimants H.A. and R.H. were deprived from getting compensation of the amount of 13 thousand 500 US dollars and 87 thousand 500 US dollars available to them after the sale of the property belonging to the debtor within the scope of enforcement proceedings, etc.
In another case, in the summer of 2015, Mihran Poghosyan, not having the right to establish the right for a third party to receive money from the commissions charged from individuals and legal entities when paying the amounts subject to confiscation by the Service, according to laws and other legal acts, ordered the creation and implementation of the “CESA Payment System” software accepting payments subject to confiscation.
Further, on 31 July, 2015, between the Service (represented by Chief Compulsory Enforcement Office of RA MP) and the company “Agropolyus” actually managed by M.P. and his cousin G.H. a service provision contract was signed for a period of five years. According to the contract, “Agropolyus” company has the right to charge 300 drams from the payers for each payment through payment accounting organizations during the provision of services; and later, to charge a commission of 500 drams for each payment exceeding 15,001 drams,. As a result, in the period from 1 August, 2015 to 1 July, 2020, the settlement organizations paid to the “Agropolyus” LLC actually managed by M.P. and his relative, 84 million 343 thousand 680 drams received from the RA citizens and legal entities under the name of “brokerage’ in fact, unrelated to that process.
Based on the above, on 23 August, 2023, the Supervising Prosecutor initiated a new public criminal prosecution against M.P. under Article 256, Part 3, Clause 3 of the Criminal Code (theft of entrusted property in particularly large amounts) (five episodes), under paragraphs 1 and 3 of part 2 of article 179 of the Criminal Code adopted on 18.04.2003 (using the official position embezzlement or waste on a large scale), under part 2 of article 308 (abusing official powers), which negligently caused serious consequences) (two episodes), part 3 of Article 309 (exceeding official powers, which negligently caused serious consequences) and part 3, item 1 of Article 190 (legalizing criminally obtained especially large assets (money laundering)).
Note: A person that is suspected or accused of an alleged crime is considered innocent until his/her guilt is proved by a court judgment that has come into legal effect pursuant to the procedure determined by RA Criminal Procedure Code.
Yevgenya Hambardzumyan
