During My Tenure, There Was No Misuse: Aghamyan Unaware of the Allegations

The assets of the Artists' Union have been 80% alienated and gone missing. According to the former director of the union, this occurred before his presidency.

Former President Karen Aghamyan assures that there was no misuse during his tenure. In an interview with Sputnik Armenia, Aghamyan responded to the statement released by the prosecutor's office today.

It was reported that the new president of the union, Suren Safaryan, has uncovered the misappropriations of his predecessor, Karen Aghamyan. On September 25, Safaryan sent the prosecutor's office a financial analysis of the union for 2017-2018, stating that during this period, 50 million drams worth of property and monetary assets were misappropriated by responsible persons from the union.

Aghamyan stated, “I have not received any notification about the initiated criminal case, nor have I been interrogated. Moreover, I learned about it from my friends who were calling and asking what this story is about.”

According to him, the initiation of such a criminal case was unexpected, and it is either malice or ignorance. The former president of the union also noted that the criminal case should be swiftly resolved to eliminate all doubts.

“During my administration, the Artists' Union only benefitted, expanded its areas, and generally survived, as it was lost before. The Artists' Union practically did not exist,” he stated.

According to Aghamyan, 80% of the union's assets were alienated and disappeared before he became president. He mentioned that the union also had another building, as well as a café, which was sold before he was appointed as president of the union.

Aghamyan also revealed that he has not spoken on this topic with the current director of the Artists' Union. “I personally promoted that guy. I created the youth union in the organization for the first time because they were my hope for tomorrow. I do not understand what is happening,” he said.

It should be noted that a criminal case has been initiated at the Central Division of the RA Police under the first part of the third section of Article 179 of the RA Criminal Code for particularly large-scale embezzlement.