The trial of former Chairman of the Investigative Committee, former Supreme Council Deputy, and former Prosecutor General Aghvan Hovsepyan continued today, October 29, at the Anti-corruption Criminal Court. The presiding judge is Tigran Davtyan.
According to Iravaban.net, prosecutor Koryun Serobyan published the interrogation records of witness Arshavir Sargsyan.
Let’s recall that this is the 3rd court session where Sargsyan’s interrogation continues.
Arshavir Sargsyan’s previous testimony in court is here.
In one of his preliminary investigation testimonies, Arshavir Sargsyan stated that during their joint business activities, he and Aghvan Hovsepyan decided to build several small hydroelectric power plants, as according to their calculations, it was a profitable business.
An agreement was reached that in the case of building small hydropower plants, he would have a share, initially 26%, but later he couldn’t remember why his share became 15%.
“Aghvan Hovsepyan suggested registering my share under his son’s name, Narek Hovsepyan. We came to a general agreement on this issue and decided to establish a new company for these small hydropower plants’ operations. However, since Samvel, as I recall, already had established companies called ‘Vardahovit’ LLC, we decided to implement the small hydropower plant construction through that company,” Sargsyan stated in his testimony.
According to him, initially, the participants were Samvel’s wife Agnesa Stepanyan and his wife Karine Sargsyan, later joined by Narek Hovsepyan and his daughter Seda Sargsyan. When guarantors were needed for taking a company loan, Hovsepyan said his son shouldn’t be a guarantor, after which Narek Hovsepyan left the participants’ composition, and for the same reason, Arshavir Sargsyan removed his daughter.
After constructing the “Vardahovit” small hydropower plant, they decided with Aghvan Hovsepyan to build another small hydropower plant for the “Surb Aghbyur” company.
Arshavir Sargsyan gave the following testimony regarding all this: “During that time, I was offered to buy a design package for a small hydropower plant planned on the Arpa River in Jermuk city’s administrative territory. I consulted with Aghvan Hovsepyan, and he also agreed that we could acquire this package and build another small hydropower plant. I sold my apartment in Moscow, Russia, for 360 thousand dollars and acquired that design package for 400 thousand dollars, and I became the 100% owner of the company, but as I mentioned before, based on the verbal agreement with Aghvan Hovsepyan, 50% of that company’s income would also belong to him, although I was making all the investments.”
He stated that their first joint business with Aghvan Hovsepyan was the car inspection station, established in 2007 at his suggestion. The latter expected to have a 50% share, but Hovsepyan said that his employee Ashot Zalinyan should also work with them. Ohan Muradyan was also involved in the same business, who had the appropriate space; they only needed to bring appropriate equipment and obtain a license. Arshavir Sargsyan handled the equipment acquisition and licensing procedures.
Addressing the disagreements between him and Hovsepyan, Arshavir Sargsyan stated that he presented financial data regarding the businesses to the latter, while before that, financial movements, expenses, and revenues were discussed verbally.
“Starting from early 2015, Aghvan Hovsepyan showed some suspicious behavior regarding my activities, which had never happened before, and told me that new calculations needed to be made for the entire joint business period. I informed him that these reports had been submitted periodically, and besides, for the last 3 years, all accounting had been done by accountants from the accounting organization they brought.
…Aghvan Hovsepyan said these calculations would be done by his son Armen Hovsepyan’s wife’s father, Garik Nushikyan, who is an economist by profession, and I agreed to his proposal. Garik started making calculations with the accountants, although they presented different data and justifications regarding certain periods to the accountants, but Garik wouldn’t accept them without presenting any valid reason, and with Aghvan Hovsepyan they told me that I had supposedly cheated Aghvan Hovsepyan out of about 3 million dollars in the joint business,” Arshavir Sargsyan stated.
Regarding the sections of his testimony given during the preliminary investigation and published by the prosecutor, Arshavir Sargsyan stated that he had memory issues, but what was written was correct, and he maintained the same in court.
When giving testimony to the preliminary investigation body, Sargsyan stated that Aghvan Hovsepyan had spoken with various officials to remove certain obstacles for the business, and Sargsyan again insisted that what was recorded was correct.
The witness told the court that he had complained against state bodies for their illegalities: “Naturally, when we’re invited to the investigative body, it’s not like we come to these investigative bodies every day, and they ask us questions every day, and we know how this question should be. They asked, they know the case, they know its nature. We haven’t fallen from the moon, there is resentment, there are problems, no matter how much bread we’ve eaten together, cheese we’ve eaten, water we’ve drunk together, but there is resentment, there are family issues, matters of self-respect, there are friendly relations that have all been violated, lots of things have happened, lots of fraud. Whether you want it or not, something awakens in you that you want to reach the real truth.”
…”I’ve told his sons too, if I ever commit dishonesty towards someone in life, if I cheat, God will punish me 10 times, I repeat again, let his sons hear and remember, if they cheat me, God will punish them a thousandfold.”
Aghvan Hovsepyan’s advocate Erik Aleksanyan asked the witness the following question: “Did you want the information you provided at the time of disclosure to have a result in the form of criminal prosecution?”
Sargsyan said he never thought that Hovsepyan should be criminally prosecuted and never wanted that.
The next court session in this case will take place on November 5, during which other witnesses summoned in the case will be interrogated.
Mariam Shahnazaryan
