Former Official of Shirak Regional Division of State Revenue Committee Sentenced to 5 Years for Embezzling 18.5 Million AMD

The investigation conducted based on a letter from the Chief Enforcement Officer addressed to the head of the Special Investigation Service of Armenia revealed that A. Khachatryan, a former accountant at the State Revenue Committee of Armenia's Shirak regional division, embezzled a large sum of property by abusing his official position.

According to the information provided by the Prosecutor General's Office, between January 22, 2015, and February 17, 2016, A. Khachatryan, violating the requirements established by the government decision No. 1408-N dated October 8, 2003, failed to register cash entry and exit orders in the cash register journal before handing them to the cashier. Instead, he regularly prepared two cash entry orders with the same number for amounts collected from two different individuals under various justifications, only registering one of them in the reporting program and in the cash flow report while failing to register the second entry order for the amount collected from the other individual, which he embezzled.

Furthermore, he consistently reflected the amounts collected from different citizens in his prepared entry orders as less than the actual amounts and embezzled the difference. Additionally, he reported a higher amount for cash payments than what was actually due, embezzling the excess amount. Through his actions of failing to register the collected funds in the cash register and the reporting program and withdrawing excessively from the cash register, A. Khachatryan embezzled a total of 18,575,344 AMD.

For these actions, A. Khachatryan was charged on March 23, 2017, under Article 179, Part 3, Point 1 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Armenia. Based on the collected evidence, which was deemed sufficient for the prosecution, the criminal case was forwarded to the Shirak Regional Court of First Instance by the prosecutor on May 6, 2017, with a bill of indictment.

On June 17, 2020, the court found A. Khachatryan guilty of the charges presented and sentenced him to 5 years of imprisonment as requested by the prosecutor. At the same time, the court fully satisfied the civil claim presented by the prosecutor regarding the amount of damages caused. The Prosecutor General's Office also appealed to the Supreme Judicial Council of Armenia regarding the reasonable time frame of the judicial proceedings in the case.