2019 February 19

Anti-Corruption Daily

Anti-Corruption Feb/19/2019: many busts -- money returned by Serj's brother -- Kocharyan's son -- directors -- police official -- city mayors, embezzlement and assault -- fake news -- fraudulent auction -- big taxpayers, including Lfik Samo, paid more taxes -- 33% of you are statistically cucks
by ar_david_hh

All the accused are innocent until proven guilty by the court of law. Currency in Armenian Drams unless specified otherwise.

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Pashinyan cabinet: Serj's brother Alexander Sargsyan has returned 9bln to the state. Earlier, the law enforcement froze his bank assets to recover the funds which they believe was obtained fraudulently.

www.civilnet.am/news/2019/02/19/Ալեքսանդր-Սարգսյանը-պետությանն-է-փոխանցել-18-5-մլն-դոլար/354976

NSS has evidence that Robert Kocharyan's son Sedrak has committed money laundering and tax crimes. Criminal charges are pressed.

NSS: Sedrak laundered 2.6bln through his company, hid the money by purchasing properties including the infamous Congress Hotel, avoided 920mln in taxes with the help of his company's director.

He is facing two felony charges. The director is charged with one count. The suspects are told not to leave the country.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154985

Masis mayor, his aide and 9 others have been charged with hooliganism over their involvement in attacks against peaceful protesters during the 2018 Velvet Revolution. The preliminary investigation is over.

They formed groups of masked thugs and applied physical force against the protesters. The incident was filmed on a video.

The mayor was earlier detained then released. He is now facing two felony charges. The case is submitted to prosecutors.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154979

A high ranking police official has been charged with one count of felony embezzlement for a theft of 109mln between 2015-2018. The funds have been recovered.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154990

3 more forest guards are charged with aiding deforestation, abuse of power and negligence, which resulted in 504 trees being cut, and 86mln damage to the state.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154994

Criminal charges for abuse of power have been filed after the police has learned about illegal land deals and auctions on 2014.

Investigators: Land registry cadaster chief, his aide, and one other official went to Karchevan (near Meghri) and told the mayor that PM Hovik Abrahamyan wants to make Meghri Free Trade Zone's surrounding areas available for purchase for the Zone's expansion. The mayor was then illegally instructed to sell the land to some company.

The company's agent then met the mayor and told him that, during the fake auction day, he will bring another phony bidder to make it appear as if there is a competition during the auction sale. The mayor agreed and later falsified more documents to make the illegal process look legitimate.

Years later, he broke the law to embezzle other land for his family.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/155013 ---- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgdiZkgjCWQ

Directors of two schools in Gyumri are facing felony embezzlement charges for falsifying employment records to steal 32mln between 2010-2018.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/964848.html

Garni N1 school director faces felony embezzlement charges for stealing 3.9mln between 2004-2017 by falsifying employee records.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154926

The administration of gov-run Institute of Theater and Cinema has returned 3.5mln in stolen funds, after an employee contacted the police last year and notified about an embezzlement.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154983

BHK leader Gagik Tsarukyan no longer misses Parliament sessions without a proper notification, says Jamanak. He recently got a permission from the Parliament before leaving to Russia for a work visit.

https://news.am/arm/news/496680.html

Top 1000 taxpayers paid 15% (119bln) more in taxes on 2018:

Grand holding 42.2bln (up 22%), Zangezur copper factory 41bln (55% up), GazProm-Armenia 40bln (down), CPS Oil 18.4bln (up), GeoProMining 16.8bln (up), Lfik Samo businesses 22.9bln (up).

Banks have also paid more: Ameriabank 6.1bln (up 52%), ACBA 6bln (up 44%).

Earlier it was reported that former oligarch Lfik Samo paid less taxes. The confusion was caused by the fact that he separated some of the businesses from the main Alex Holding brand. Some of his businesses could have paid less, but all of the businesses combined paid 1.4bln more on 2018, noted IRS. (hire me to count your money bros)

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154957 - - - - http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154676 - - - - http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154904 ---- http://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/265622/ ---- http://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/265622/

Hraparak news outlet continues the smear campaign against Pashinyan cabinet members.

The latest target was the Health Minister Torosyan. The paper accused the Minister of favoring former administration ally Lfik Samo's hospital (not the first time the news outlet attempts to draw absurd parallels between new and old gov) when it comes to sending subsidized low income patients. The records show, however, that the hospital was on the 6th place in the amount of subsidy money received by the government, points out the Minister.

http://moh.am/?fbclid=IwAR3lS2mJycaN1TpWL8i3P2FUVZxWrMdHFddqCBZqxeDgQhQL80sHiVlj24E#1/919

The article also said the Minister owns a hospital which received increased subsidies, making it appear that the Minister is involved in corruption. The Minister denied owning the hospital, said he only worked as its director between 2011-2018. Other sites have speculated that his wife could be a director of that hospital.

The healthcare system says that any hospital that meets the quality requirements will receive funds when a patient visits and receives care. The Ministry has increased the amount of subsidy it pays to patients/hospitals by several billions of Drams for 2019, as part of a campaign to provide more affordable healthcare to citizens.

Reforms were made in the system last year to encourage hospitals to provide higher quality care, by connecting the amount of subsidy the hospital can receive directly to the number of non-subsidized patients that use the hospital. The idea is that if someone wants to use your services out of pocket, then you must be providing a good service and deserve to receive an influx of new patients.

19 free stroke surgeries were done in the past 18 days, after it was made free few weeks ago. Hundreds of thousands of more patients are now covered under the reforms. Some cancer surgeries will be made free as well. These changes are part of the government's plan to establish a Universal Healthcare in the coming years.

http://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/265621/ ------ https://factor.am/125816.html

Kocharyan-allied politik.am has published what appears to be a fake news targeted towards QP MP Sipan Pashinyan, who was elected from Ijevan on 2018. (He is related to PM.)

The MP said the site is spreading lies about his alleged $40,000 land ownership and a big business plan, which the website wrote while mentioning his relationship with PM Pashinyan with an attempt to harm the latter's reputation, said MP.

MP says the story in reality is about him holding meetings with a foreign investor to convince him create a business in the region where he was elected, to provide jobs. The businessman has agreed and will soon decide what business to open on his (foreign businessman's) newly acquired land.

MP wants the site to "retract the false reports".

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154944

After some residents complained about big utility bills, rumors have begun circulating that Gazprom-Armenia might have lowered the gas quality to compensate for the $15 gas price hike that the company will absorb on 2019.

The public complaints records, however, does not indicate a big change in the number of complaints filed for January (150 vs 170). Half of the citizens surveyed at the Haypost office did not have complaints about their bills. The utilities company has blamed the increased bills on a particularly cold month, said will examine every filed complaint.

A public organization tasked with protecting consumer rights will check the meters to see whether they are inaccurate, or a deliberate wrong number was inserted in the system by inspectors who check the meters, or if inspectors did their work with a delay and calculated >38 days worth consumption and labeled it to one month.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-Jc8kLH-qk

(If Gazprom-Armenia meddled with the gas calorie, wouldn't every household and business notice the unusual increase because they all get it from the same source?)

Yerevan municipality has saved 760mln through purchase reforms so far on 2019.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154918

Exports to Russia has increased by 20% and reached 325bln, while imports stood at 613bln. Overall trade w/Russia rose 11.2% (by far the largest trade partner in post-Soviet region). Kazakhstan trade rose 50%. Belarus trade rose 9.2%. Kyrgys trade fell 30%.

https://armenpress.am/arm/news/964533.html

PM Pashinyan published a new book about the part of his life when he was on the run from the authorities after the 2008 events. During the opening ceremony of the book, he said that while he was hiding in a friend's house, the media spread rumors that NSS had orders to kill him by staging a resistance scene during the apprehension.

So he decided to mislead the investigators by making it appear as if he was no longer in Armenia, to confuse their search operations. He read numerous books from world historians and Georgian writers to learn more about other geographic regions, so the articles that he wrote about those regions would appear more genuine and the investigators would believe he passed through those regions while leaving Armenia.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmsoaAVh1AQ

President Sarkissian was in Munich world security summit. He met the former US vice president Joe Biden and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. The latter was invited to visit Armenia

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154863 ----- https://news.am/arm/news/496859.html

Azerbaijan has pressed two new charges in-absentia against Israeli blogger Alexander Lapshin, who was earlier deported from Belarus to Azerbaijan to face bogus illegal border crossing charges for visiting Artsakh Republic. He was arrested then released.

The new charges accuse him of making calls against the sate of Azerbaijan, and "supporting terrorism" by calling for a prisoner Mehman Husseynov to be released, says Lapshin.

He believes the charges are a response by the angry Azeri authorities who are being sued by Lapshin in the European Court for Human Rights for an attempted murder while he was serving in Azeri prison. He presented medical evidence to ECHR, which was accepted among with the petition to hear his case.

http://www.armtimes.com/hy/article/154931

Adult stats:

The vast majority of men and women reported being satisfied with their sex life. Women were more likely to report being dissatisfied.

45% of men and 26% of women believe that a man "needs another woman" despite being married.

33% of respondents do not see it as a big deal when the husband cheats on the wife. (You surprise me every day, Armenia).

Marriage rates are down 3%. Divorce rate is at 25%. Highest divorce is in Lori province at 44%, while lowest is in Gegharquniq at 11%.

https://youtu.be/lxL3YDXW-9E?t=70

To end the Azeri energy monopoly in Georgia and reduce the gas prices, the country's government is negotiating with Russia to buy more gas from them, said a Georgian minister. Azerbaijan had earlier increased gas prices for the Georgian industry.

They are also currently negotiating with Russia about a new transit deal (existing deal expired) to transit Russian gas to Armenia, possibly at different rates and conditions.

http://azeridaily.com/reality/45958 ----- http://www.panarmenian.net/arm/news/265633/

Link to original report: https://www.reddit.com/r/armenia/comments/asfalq/anticorruption_feb192019_many_busts_money/