2024-02-20 17:08:21
Investigative journalists revealed that money of unknown origin was transferred to the ruling party for campaign expenses on behalf of various people. Having studied the scope of those who participated in the “Civil Contract” fundraiser ahead of the Yerevan Council of Elders elections, “Infocom” has concluded that the source of part of the party’s pre-election campaign money is at least dubious.
“The case of one of the donors, which we described at the beginning of the article, when his acquaintance asked him for his identification card, entered “Armeconombank”, came out and said: “Come in, there is a person who will accompany you, you will sign something.” , the donor entered, was accompanied by a man, took the receipt without knowing, without seeing the money,” says the author of the investigation, journalist Lusi Manvelyan.
Azatutyun.am writes: This is just one example of a transfer of unknown origin on behalf of a citizen to a CP account. The authors of the investigation revealed such stories at different addresses in Yerevan. In some cases, even though people’s names are on the list of donors, they still denied donating money to the ruling party.
The journalists studied the data of those who transferred from 1 million to 2.5 million AMD and recorded three main patterns: these people live at addresses close to each other, large sums were donated by people related to businessmen and officials, as well as officials. For example, in Nor Nork administrative district, 5 residents of only one building gave the ruling party the highest amount allowed by law: 2.5 million drams.
“This was the first one that seemed at least strange to us. Then we met the donors and we were more convinced of our suspicions than their words, because we had cases when people said, “we don’t know”, the parents of the donors said, “if he had that much money, he would have paid off the loans, he would have done something for the child.” : And the living conditions also allowed us to assume that difficult people would donate 2.5 million, around 6,500 dollars to the party,” Manvelyan emphasizes.
“Let’s say that a person does not know that money has been entered in his name, that is certainly unacceptable. I can assure you now, I can also express our official opinion: it is unacceptable, highly unacceptable for us,” declared Gevorg Papoyan, vice-chairman of the “Civil Agreement” party.
The vice-president of the ruling party is angry and surprised by the publication, at the same time he has no explanation, how then were millions of drams transferred to the “Civil Agreement” on behalf of the citizens? – “If something like this happened, you should talk to the addressees, maybe it didn’t happen, maybe there was confusion? I can’t say anything definite, because, I repeat, I state clearly: the party cannot, could not, it is unacceptable.”
Lusi Manvelyan, the author of the investigation, meanwhile, claims that an organized mechanism was operating not only to transfer money of unknown origin on behalf of people, but also regarding the involvement of businessmen. First of all, these funds were transferred through “Armeconombank” belonging to the family of the government deputy Khachatur Sukiasyan, in addition, among the big donors are former republican, businessman Ashot Arsenyan, people related to the owner of “Water World” Khachik Khachatryan, as well as the employees of “Yeremyan Projects”. : For example, 8 people from this company operating in the food sector transferred the maximum amount of 2.5 million drams.
“We contacted Yeremyan Projects, they informed us that the company has nothing to do with it at all, the company has more than 2,500 employees and does not control their political views and what they do. But it seems to me that it is not a coincidence that the 8 we have identified are representatives of the management team and, of course, we have information from our sources that the company’s money was transferred and not people’s personal money,” he emphasizes. is Lusi Manvelyan.
The vice-president of the ruling party does not consider it logical that businessmen would distribute money to their employees to transfer to the “Civil Contract”.
“Participating in the fundraising of the party has never exempted any businessman and will not exempt him from any obligation and will not give him any advantage,” assured Gevorg Papoyan.
For example, the son of Arsen Arsenyan, one of the businessmen who carried out the transfers, was charged with illegal dismissal from military service, the criminal case was later dismissed. At the end of last year, Yeremyan Projects opened a large livestock complex in Tashir community with the support of the state. The businesses belonging to the family of MP Khachatur Sukiasyan are expanding, according to the videos they made. Doesn’t this mean that preferential terms of the game can be set for these businessmen? According to Varuzhan Hoktanyan, head of programs of “Transparency International” anti-corruption center, this is exactly what political corruption is.
“We have the so-called “you to me, I to you” Latin phrase that the expert community uses in international terminology, it was a quid pro quo donation. In other words, the business makes a donation to the ruling political force, and then the ruling political force gives certain tax, customs and other privileges in return,” said Hoktanyan in a conversation with “Azatutyan”.
The official deputy says: if there is a crime in that publication, let the law enforcement officers find out. The Prosecutor’s Office told “Azat” that they are not investigating the publication.
By the way, “Civil Agreement” refused media requests for a list of donors for months, it was provided only after a lawsuit was filed. Gevorg Papoyan claimed today that the party was not aware that these requests were rejected. However, the author of the investigation says that in addition to the inquiries, they also had a telephone conversation with the other vice-president of the party, Vahagn Aleksanyan.