30,000 Dollars Demanded from MoD Colonel, Threat to Reveal Damaging Information to NSS

The Investigative Committee of Armenia has initiated proceedings regarding a significant extortion case involving Colonel Arsen Tumanyan, the regional military commissioner of the Ministry of Defence in Lori Province.

As reported by photojournalist Gagik Shamshyan, operational information has been received by the National Security Service (NSS) indicating that an unknown individual contacted Colonel Tumanyan in November 2019, informing him that a letter had been left in the yard of a private residence in the village of Dsegh.

The letter stated that, in exchange for money, the military commissioner could illegally exempt individuals from military service, and to prevent this ‘thick dossier’ from being sent to the NSS, $30,000 should be transferred to an account he provided.

According to Shamshyan, the caller subsequently informed the colonel that $15,000 should be left under a trailer parked near a gas station adjacent to the village of Shnogh, where the extortionist had left a second letter. The second letter indicated that damaging information regarding the illegal exemption of his children from military service would not reach the NSS if the remaining sum was also transferred.

Shamshyan further noted that the National Security Service has identified the mobile number from which the calls were made. Necessary operational intelligence measures are being undertaken to establish the full identity of the extortionists and to apprehend them.