2018 August 29

Anti-Corruption Daily

Anti-Corruption Aug/29/2018: 🔥🔥🔥 MASSIVE! 🔥🔥🔥 Former Prime Minister, Yerevan mayor and Transport Minister, police chief and a HHK MP are implicated in multiple criminal investigations for extorting 60% of business shares, bank fraud, falsification of documents and other crimes. (MORE BELOW)
by ar_david_hh

Disclaimer: All the accused are innocent until proven guilty by the court of law, even if they may sound as being guilty. Currency in Armenian Drams ֏ unless specified otherwise.

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50-50? MORE LIKE 60-40! RA Investigative Committee launches a criminal investigation after Avazahatik mining company contacts the authorities and reports an illegal extortion by the previous administration members during 2008. Former Prime Minister Hovik "Muk" Abrahamyan, his relative, and the former police chief Alik Sargsyan are accused of threatening to "cause problems" and shut down the mine unless the owner gave them 60% of the company shares https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BzK-sojTSjQ

--- http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/143247 ----- http://investigative.am/news/view/avazahatik.html

Investigative Commission also launches a criminal investigation against the former employees of Universal credit company after the acting director contacts the authorities. The former director and several suspects are accused of issuing illegal loans, submitting falsified documents to the Central Bank, extortion of company shares, theft of $500,000 from a client account. The accused participant are none other than the former Transport Minister and Yerevan mayor Gagik Beglaryan (yes, that guy) and the former HHK MP M. Sedrakyan (yes, that guy), who is also accused of abuse of power. https://armlur.am/835070/ ——- http://investigative.am/news/view/beglaryan.html

A fed up resident contacts the authorities and reports a bribery by Goris social security staff. A criminal case is launched against one employee who extorted a bribe in exchange for keeping the poor family on the list of aid recipients https://armenpress.am/arm/news/945349/

... Dozens of employees and one high ranking social security official, as well as HayPost employees, have been charged in a massive AMD 594mln embezzlement scheme for requiring bribes from low income and disabled people, in Vanadzor area. https://news.am/arm/news/468458.htm

YOU’RE A WIZARD, HARRY! Ministry of Transport reports that due to improved efficiency of fund management and quality control, they will build 77km of important roadways instead of the planned 66km https://news.am/arm/news/468390.html

Armenia will nationalize the management of the Բարձրավոլտ էլեկտրացանցեր, the high volt electric grid. It was being run by Tashir Corporation. They have come to an agreement with the Ministry of Energy that it’s best for the government to manage it. This news was broken few months ago, then it was denied, and now it’s officially confirmed by the minister https://news.am/arm/news/468371.html

... Minister says the United Arab Emirates and two EU countries have agreed to invest in the creation of wind turbines with 200MW energy production https://armenpress.am/arm/news/945332/

... says the Ministry has contacted Iran with an offer to sell more electricity in exchange for more cheaper gas. Once the counter offer is received, it’ll be compared to the price of Russian gas. They also plan to negotiate the gas prices with Russia. https://armlur.am/834924/

... says the Ministry has issued a warning to 156 mining companies after finding violations and illegal working practices. The companies are given 3 months to fix the issues, or face a license revocation https://armenpress.am/arm/news/945336/

IRS increases deputy director salaries to $4100mo plus bonuses, in order to reduce corruption risks https://armlur.am/834800/

NSS conducts widespread raids in provincial gubernatorial and mayoral offices. No details so far https://news.am/arm/news/468303.html

Former director of School 49 is charged with embezzlement if AMD 7.6mln for registering his family members as employees then paying them salaries, even though they never worked there http://investigative.am/news/view/shengavit-dproci-tnoren-charashahum.html

Education Minister says 10 corruption cases where uncovered by their internal audits and submitted to prosecutors https://news.am/arm/news/468409.html

.... he says a new formula will be used to calculate aid for schools. The ones with few students will receive more funding than they currently do. He also says the directors will have a complete freedom on how to use the funds, as long as they don’t report shortages annually. In past, directors have told him that the mayor’s office prohibited them from using the remaining funds. Says the schools must no longer be used as a campaign tool for politicians https://armenpress.am/arm/news/945410/

ARF and OEK parties say they have no plans to join and support Robert Kocharyan politically https://armlur.am/834906/

Due to poor road conditions and border traffic congestions which hurt its own tourism, Georgia will prohibit wheat transportation to-from any neighboring country via roads, even for its own consumption. Railroad and sea must be used. In order to prevent a possible wheat price hike in Armenia, Georgian railways has preliminarily agreed to provide a discounted transportation to match its final transportation costs to the land fees https://armenpress.am/arm/news/945365/ ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqGz2TAFp6g

The Israeli company that supplied Orbiter drones to Azerbaijan is facing a criminal investigation for illegal sales of weapons. Three executives are called in for a questioning. The license to sell the drones was revoked earlier. https://news.am/arm/news/468405.html

German Technology Minister says they’ll create TUMO-like tech centers in Germany, after Angela Merkel visited the center in Armenia to familiarize with it https://news.am/arm/news/468438.html

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Link to original report and comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/9bc2cc/anticorruption_aug292018_massive_former_prime/