33.6 Million Dram Damages to the State Recovered

The Armenian Investigative Committee has successfully recovered damages amounting to 33,600,000 Armenian drams caused to the state, as part of a criminal case being investigated by the main investigative department for particularly important cases of the Military Investigative Directorate.

The case was initiated on September 20, 2018, under Article 375 (abuse of power, overstepping authority or inactivity) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia, concerning the misconduct of certain officials from the Ministry of Defense related to the sale of a land plot located at 47/7 Moldova Street in Yerevan.

During the pre-investigation, it was established that the process of alienating the mentioned land plot was conducted in accordance with the requirements of Armenian legislation. However, it was also revealed that a baseless conclusion was drawn from a market assessment conducted prior to the alienation, resulting in the land being sold at a value of 38,000,000 Armenian drams, which was below its market value, thereby causing 33,600,000 drams in damages to the state.

All damages to the state have been fully recovered during the investigation. Additionally, the investigation did not substantiate any preliminary agreements or intent by the officials of the Ministry of Defense or the director of the company that conducted the market assessment to undervalue the land. As a result, decisions were made to terminate criminal proceedings against the relevant officials from the Ministry of Defense and the director of the assessing company based on the lack of evidence of a crime, in accordance with point 2 of part 1 of Article 35 of the Criminal Procedure Code of the Republic of Armenia.