Citizens Unaware They Are Donating to the PPDA: Suspicious Transactions of the Party

'Infocom' has conducted an investigation and identified almost all individuals who made donations exceeding 1 million drams to the 'Civil Contract' party, discovering that the transactions related to the electoral campaign are suspicious, and at least part of the funding has unknown origins.

The media outlet found that documents and signatures of various individuals were used to transfer funds of unknown origin to the PPDA's bank account. One such incident occurred on July 31, 2023, the same day the 'Civil Contract' party organized a fundraising evening for the electoral campaign.

Notably, the PPDA did not make a public announcement in advance about the fundraising event. It was only days later that the head of the party's electoral staff, now the Deputy Mayor of Yerevan, Armen Pambukhchyan, wrote on his Facebook page: 'As a result of the contributions from 987 donors, a total of 506,532,950 AMD has been collected.'

The media highlighted the case of Karine (name changed), but there are other individuals on the donor list who were also unaware of transactions made in their name. The maximum allowable donation per individual according to the law is 2.5 million drams. The overwhelming majority of donations to the PPDA's electoral campaign—87 percent—were collected through transfers of 1 million drams and above, with approximately 70 percent coming from 140 individuals who donated 2.5 million drams.

'From our analysis of the data, we have noticed three patterns: Individuals donating between 1 and 2.5 million drams live in close proximity to each other; significant amounts have been donated by individuals associated with major companies engaged in business activities; and the major donors include officials, candidates for the council, current members, and their affiliates,' the publication stated.