Who owns what in Armenia

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Governor’s Son Freed In Assault Probe

Irina Hovhannisyan
Հրապարակված է՝ 01.10.2015

A notoriously violent son of an Armenian regional government was set free on Thursday two months after being arrested on charges of leading a brutal attack on two men outside his hometown of Goris in May.

Law-enforcement authorities said new evidence obtained by them shows that Tigran Khachatrian did not personally inflict a severe injury on Harut Zakarian, one of the two victims attacked by a large group of other men.

Zakarian lost vision in one eye, while his brother Mushegh suffered a broken nose in the incident which reportedly occurred after a verbal argument with Khachatrian, whose father Suren is the governor of the surrounding Syunik province. The brothers testified that Tigran led and personally participated in the beating.

The Armenian police arrested several men, among them relatives of Khachatrian, before reluctantly interrogating Tigran later in May. The 20-year-old was placed under arrest in late July amid a continuing media outcry.

Explaining Tigran’s release from custody, the Office of the Prosecutor-General said another arrested suspect, Yuri Manucharian, has admitted badly injuring Harut Zakarian during the violence. In a statement, the law-enforcement agency said that Manucharian’s testimony has been confirmed by several other “witnesses” as well as Zakarian.

Zakarian told investigators earlier that it was Tigran Khachatrian who kicked him in the eye. His parents had for months been demanding that Khachatrian be arrested and prosecuted on corresponding charges.

The victim’s father, Gagik Zakarian, pointedly declined to condemn Khachatrian’s release from jail, saying that he fully trusts the investigators. Speaking to RFE/RL’s Armenian service (Azatutyun.am), he strongly denied that the Khachatrian family or law-enforcement bodies have forced his son to change his testimony.

Tigran Khachatrian already spent three months in pre-trial detention in 2013 after shooting and killing a man outside his father’s Goris villa. He was subsequently cleared of the murder charges and set free. Law-enforcement authorities said the gunshots fired by Khachatrian and one of the Syunik governor’s bodyguards constituted legitimate self-defense.

Suren Khachatrian, who is better known as “Liska,” was sacked in the wake of the 2013 incident. But he was reinstated as governor a year later, sparking renewed allegations by the Armenian opposition and civil society about impunity enjoyed by thuggish government loyalists.

Armenian human rights activists consider Tigran’s release from custody as another proof of that impunity. “For two months Armenia’s entire law-enforcement system has looked for a way to free Tigran Khachatrian,” one of them, Zhanna Aleksanian, told RFE/RL’s Armenian service. “They have clearly found one.”

“It is evident that once again Liska and a prominent member of his gang, his son, are directly sponsored by Armenia’s so-called law-enforcement bodies,” agreed another activist, Artur Sakunts. “This is a blatant act of injustice directed against every citizen of Armenia.”

http://www.azatutyun.am/content/article/27282048.html

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Did Karabakh Fighting Weaken the Panama Papers’ Impact?
April 12, 2016,
by Giorgi Lomsadze


Gold mines for Azerbaijan’s presidential offspring, an ex-Georgian leader’s offshore company, a key Armenian official’s questionable income, the grounds for a clamoring public outcry in the South Caucasus over the Panama Papers were all there. But, so far, it hasn’t come.

Publication of these reports coincided with fresh fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone that many feared could erupt into full-scale war. The fear of war -- the 1988-1994 Karabakh conflict was arguably the most devatating of the ex-Soviet Union's separatist conflicts -- easily outweighed any fear of corruption.

Details about the Azerbaijani presidential family’s alleged control over Azerbaijan’s goldmines and its supposed business alliance with Tax Minister Fazil Mammadov hit on April 4, a day before a ceasefire which more or less ended three days of fighting with Armenian and separatist Karabakhi forces.

A 2012 report by RFE/RL, an OCCRP partner, had found that Aliyev’s daughters had stake in the goldmines; a revelation that OCCRP believes cost RFE/RL investigative journalist Khadija Ismyailova her freedom.*

But with thousands of Azerbaijanis taking to the streets to reassert the nation’s claim to Karabakh and surrounding occupied territories, and to grieve those killed, last week was definitely not the time to expect any sort of push for an investigation into the Aliyevs’ dealings. In the face of the struggle against Armenia and breakaway Karabakh, domestic critics of the government kept their mouths shut.

Armenia got hit by the Panama Papers, too, though on a far less high-profile scale.

Attention focused on the OFFSHORE secret business shares and Swiss bank accounts of the country’s bailiff-in-chief, Mighran Poghosian. The Armenian investigative journalism service Hetq.am, which sifted through the Armenia-related records from Mossack Fonseca, said that Poghosian lied when he asserted that he had given up all of his private business stakes after becoming Armenia’s chief compulsory enforcement officer, or the official responsible for execution of court verdicts. Based on the records, Hetq argued that Major-General Poghosian owns shares in three Panama-based companies and manages an account in Switzerland’s LGB Bank.

Hetq.am told a reporter for EurasiaNet.org that they have received no immediate response from the government to the report.**

Poghosian, formerly a national security official, previously has been implicated in banana smuggling as well as incongruously large loans. His wife, meanwhile, has been accused of lavish shopping, though declaring in official financial statements no income.

The latest allegations about Poghosian surfaced on April 4, after Armenia claimed that it had repulsed an Azerbaijani takeover of territory in Karabakh. Rather than chasing after Poghosian, defending ethnic Armenians amidst allegations of Azerbaijani war crimes became the national priority. Thousands took to the streets of Yerevan on April 11 to protest the deaths of reportedly scores of people in Karabakh during the fighting.

OCCRP’s Regional Editor Dave Bloss said that the timing of the publication of these stories was unavoidable. Months before, news outlets made privy to the Panama Papers had agreed upon the timing for the stories’ release “to the hour,” he told EurasiaNet.org.

The hushed reaction was not limited to participants in the Karabakh conflict. .
According to OCCRP, Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country’s prime minister from 2012 to 2013, failed to disclose ownership in an offshore company called Lynden Management Limited when he took office. That ownership allowed Ivanishvili and “a close associate” to control “about 20 percent of the stock in Raptor Pharmaceuticals, a major US-based company," OCCRP reported. Ivanishvili, though, declared that ownership in his income declarations while in office, it added.

The claims about Ivanishvili’s offshore hobbies ring a bell for many. According to a 2014 report by Transparency International Georgia, the former premier allegedly has owned a number of businesses through offshore shell entities. Even Ivanishvili’s famed Tbilisi residence, a James Bond-like glass palace overlooking the nation’s capital, and the palace’s rooftop heliport were owned by two separate offshore companies, TI claimed.

Attention also has fallen on another former government official, ex-Georgian Defense Minister Davit Kezerashvili, who served during the 2008 war with Russia. The Swiss newspaper Tribune de Genève reported, based on the Panama files, that three offshore companies were opened for Kezerashvili within ten days of his resignation in late 2008, and were used, allegedly, "to transit important sums from business in oil."

For now, it is unclear if the latest revelations will result in a legal inquiry against any of the individuals named.

The Armenian chapter of Transparency International has filed a petition for a parliamentary ethics committee investigation into Poghosian’s business dealings. Georgia is introducing a new law allowing authorities to fact-check officials’ asset declarations. An incomplete declaration will be subject to a 1,000 lari fine – a big $442.48.

Nothing indicates as yet that it would apply retroactively to Ivanishvili, who, in any case, could afford to pay the fine without noticing.

Despite the modest results so far from the reports, OCCRP told EurasiaNet.org that there is much more to come, as they have reams of files to sort through. The body of records is so large that “For the rest of my life, there will never be a day when I wake up thinking 'What should I do today?'” OCCRP’s Bloss said.

*Khadija Ismayilova formerly worked as a freelance reporter for EurasiaNet.org.

**Marianna Grigoryan and Caucasus news editor Elizabeth Owen contributed reporting to this post.

[Zeytun]

Re: Who owns what in Armenia

Did Karabakh Fighting Weaken the Panama Papers’ Impact?
April 12, 2016,
by Giorgi Lomsadze


Gold mines for Azerbaijan’s presidential offspring, an ex-Georgian leader’s offshore company, a key Armenian official’s questionable income, the grounds for a clamoring public outcry in the South Caucasus over the Panama Papers were all there. But, so far, it hasn’t come.

Publication of these reports coincided with fresh fighting between Azerbaijani and ethnic Armenian forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone that many feared could erupt into full-scale war. The fear of war -- the 1988-1994 Karabakh conflict was arguably the most devatating of the ex-Soviet Union's separatist conflicts -- easily outweighed any fear of corruption.

Details about the Azerbaijani presidential family’s alleged control over Azerbaijan’s goldmines and its supposed business alliance with Tax Minister Fazil Mammadov hit on April 4, a day before a ceasefire which more or less ended three days of fighting with Armenian and separatist Karabakhi forces.

A 2012 report by RFE/RL, an OCCRP partner, had found that Aliyev’s daughters had stake in the goldmines; a revelation that OCCRP believes cost RFE/RL investigative journalist Khadija Ismyailova her freedom.*

But with thousands of Azerbaijanis taking to the streets to reassert the nation’s claim to Karabakh and surrounding occupied territories, and to grieve those killed, last week was definitely not the time to expect any sort of push for an investigation into the Aliyevs’ dealings. In the face of the struggle against Armenia and breakaway Karabakh, domestic critics of the government kept their mouths shut.

Armenia got hit by the Panama Papers, too, though on a far less high-profile scale.

Attention focused on the OFFSHORE secret business shares and Swiss bank accounts of the country’s bailiff-in-chief, Mighran Poghosian. The Armenian investigative journalism service Hetq.am, which sifted through the Armenia-related records from Mossack Fonseca, said that Poghosian lied when he asserted that he had given up all of his private business stakes after becoming Armenia’s chief compulsory enforcement officer, or the official responsible for execution of court verdicts. Based on the records, Hetq argued that Major-General Poghosian owns shares in three Panama-based companies and manages an account in Switzerland’s LGB Bank.

Hetq.am told a reporter for EurasiaNet.org that they have received no immediate response from the government to the report.**

Poghosian, formerly a national security official, previously has been implicated in banana smuggling as well as incongruously large loans. His wife, meanwhile, has been accused of lavish shopping, though declaring in official financial statements no income.

The latest allegations about Poghosian surfaced on April 4, after Armenia claimed that it had repulsed an Azerbaijani takeover of territory in Karabakh. Rather than chasing after Poghosian, defending ethnic Armenians amidst allegations of Azerbaijani war crimes became the national priority. Thousands took to the streets of Yerevan on April 11 to protest the deaths of reportedly scores of people in Karabakh during the fighting.

OCCRP’s Regional Editor Dave Bloss said that the timing of the publication of these stories was unavoidable. Months before, news outlets made privy to the Panama Papers had agreed upon the timing for the stories’ release “to the hour,” he told EurasiaNet.org.

The hushed reaction was not limited to participants in the Karabakh conflict. .
According to OCCRP, Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, the country’s prime minister from 2012 to 2013, failed to disclose ownership in an offshore company called Lynden Management Limited when he took office. That ownership allowed Ivanishvili and “a close associate” to control “about 20 percent of the stock in Raptor Pharmaceuticals, a major US-based company," OCCRP reported. Ivanishvili, though, declared that ownership in his income declarations while in office, it added.

The claims about Ivanishvili’s offshore hobbies ring a bell for many. According to a 2014 report by Transparency International Georgia, the former premier allegedly has owned a number of businesses through offshore shell entities. Even Ivanishvili’s famed Tbilisi residence, a James Bond-like glass palace overlooking the nation’s capital, and the palace’s rooftop heliport were owned by two separate offshore companies, TI claimed.

Attention also has fallen on another former government official, ex-Georgian Defense Minister Davit Kezerashvili, who served during the 2008 war with Russia. The Swiss newspaper Tribune de Genève reported, based on the Panama files, that three offshore companies were opened for Kezerashvili within ten days of his resignation in late 2008, and were used, allegedly, "to transit important sums from business in oil."

For now, it is unclear if the latest revelations will result in a legal inquiry against any of the individuals named.

The Armenian chapter of Transparency International has filed a petition for a parliamentary ethics committee investigation into Poghosian’s business dealings. Georgia is introducing a new law allowing authorities to fact-check officials’ asset declarations. An incomplete declaration will be subject to a 1,000 lari fine – a big $442.48.

Nothing indicates as yet that it would apply retroactively to Ivanishvili, who, in any case, could afford to pay the fine without noticing.

Despite the modest results so far from the reports, OCCRP told EurasiaNet.org that there is much more to come, as they have reams of files to sort through. The body of records is so large that “For the rest of my life, there will never be a day when I wake up thinking 'What should I do today?'” OCCRP’s Bloss said.

*Khadija Ismayilova formerly worked as a freelance reporter for EurasiaNet.org.

**Marianna Grigoryan and Caucasus news editor Elizabeth Owen contributed reporting to this post.

Armenia State Bailiffs Service Chief Resigns Over Panama Papers Leak

By RFE/RL's Armenian Service
April 18, 2016

http://www.rferl.org/content/armenia-bailiffs-service-chief-panama-papers/27681697.html

YEREVAN -- The head of Armenia's State Bailiffs Service has resigned after local news reports documented his alleged links to offshore companies.

Major General Migran Pogosian said on April 18 that he was stepping down in order to comment on the situation as a private person.

More than 11 million documents known as the Panama Papers have been the basis for dozens of news articles around the world detailing shady financial transactions involving officials around the world.

Armenian investigative website Hetq.am has published documents apparently showing that Pogosian was linked to three Panama-registered companies -- Sigtem Real Estates, Hopkinten Trading, and Bango Invest.

[Zeytun]

Re: Who owns what in Armenia

Ruben Vardanyan: The recent war requires to speak openly

http://www.mediamax.am/en/news/society/17956/

Co-founder of Initiatives for Development of Armenia (IDeA) foundation, Co-founder of 100 LIVES initiative and Aurora Prize Ruben Vardanyan hopes that the ceremony of Aurora Prize will help the Armenians get a different look at the world.
[...]

Mediamax took a note of ideas he expressed during the interview.

''We have no other way but to unite the homeland. Two things hold a nation together: pride to be one of that nation and danger that threatens it. The four-day war in April showed that we are proud of our soldiers who stand at the borders and are ready to give their lives for the future of Armenia.

We felt pride for Armenian soldiers and Armenian people. What matters the most is that we realized that we’re the ones to solve our issue, no one will do it for us. We realized that either we unite and change something with our strength and intellect or our pride fades and dissatisfaction transforms, which is very dangerous.

Like a cold shower, this four-day war allows us to unite, understand, talk and make a decision together, without dispute. We should use this chance in full.

It will be hard to built a powerful and proud Armenia without serious changes

Very serious changes are ahead of us. The primary and most important matter is the program for the future of independent Armenia and development of Armenian people.

As a nation, we live in different countries, we have successful communities and people. At the same time, we’ve been independent for 25 years, and a question arises now - what Armenia are we building? What Armenia do we want to build?

The recent war show that without answering these questions and making serious changes, we’ll find it very difficult to built a powerful and proud Armenia.

I don’t live here, but as an Armenian who ties his life with the future of Armenian people I believe that the most important issue we have to solve is what kind of state we want to build and what future we see for Armenia.

Today’s Armenia is living in a closed environment where people succeed through various monopolies, where the interest towards what’s happening in the world is little or superficial.

We aren’t used to being able to solve our issues ourselves, we aren’t used to think like a winner or a strong one. Sadly, our independence began with an earthquake, a war and a blockade, and situation was truly very difficult at that time.

Of course, help is very important, but it has both positive and negative aspects. What assistance from different countries and Diaspora led to is that we didn’t learn to give something, we only ever want to take.

It’s impossible for businessmen from Diaspora and Armenia to work together in the current model. The model we have today doesn’t allow foreigners or Armenians living abroad to come here, start a business in favorable conditions and succeed.

One of the problems is that rules of the game are different for different people. In a non-transparent environment, it’s hard to create an interesting connection between businessmen from Diaspora and Armenia.

The issue is more in the mindset, in how we perceive ourselves. Whether we see Armenia as a country that stays stuck in its problems, or we try to become a place where people can come, invest and work.

By our estimate, USD 500 mln annually should be invested in Armenia for 15 years for our country to get on a new level of development. According to our other estimate, USD 300-500 mln annually goes through Armenian “black economy” or is invested in spheres that don’t provide profitable payback.

Opening the model implies equal rules of the games for everybody, when all should pay taxes. We have a situation today when people don’t pay taxes, do “charity” with a part of unpaid taxes, and people say “what a nice benefactor”.

The recent war makes us speak openly

I’ll bring you an example. “Armenia” airline company is supposed to make a flight today. 51% of this company’s shares belongs to a dentist, and you need at least USD 8-10 mln to open an airline company. A dentist cannot earn that much money in their entire life not only in Armenia, but in any other country. Everyone can see something is amiss, but the company gets all necessary documents and permissions in 2 months. I wonder at Armenia, a country so great that a dentist can open an airline company here in two months.

But if we take it seriously, no joking, it’s a very serious issue. Why does the government allow someone with no proof of financial means to actually found an airline company? This is a matter of public safety first. Obviously, that company will be adjudged bankrupt in six months or a year.


Perhaps, I’m exaggerating, because I’m an emotional man, but the April war didn’t allow us to speak “half-truth”. It doesn’t allow us to refrain from asking, for example, why children of the elite don’t serve.

21st century is our century

We have a great advantage, as I said many times. 21st century is our century, the century of Armenian people. For the first time, wealth is defined not by the amount of land or oil you own, but by the number of smart people you have. That is what matters the most.
We have a chance to use not only the wealth of our country, but the wealth of our people and the ties of our nation. We used it for centuries, - when Armenian businessmen worked in Singapore or France, other nations simply didn’t travel yet.

- See more at: http://www.mediamax.am/en/news/socie....gUW2xrAy.dpuf

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